I Can See Clearly Now

 Part II

After our foggy hike among the trees, the girls were ready for lunch.  When we first arrived at Craggy Gardens, we went in the visitor center and I asked the guy working in there if he knew how much farther along the Parkway the fog ended and he said not more than a couple of miles past the visitor center towards the picnic area.

It looked like it was starting to dissipate when we got back to the parking lot.  When we went around the first curve after leaving, it was clear.  Thank goodness.

We stopped for lunch in the picnic area, where there were lots of rhododendrons blooming.

After we ate, the girls wanted to go back and redo our hike since it was likely to be clear now.

We enjoyed our hike the second time we did it, too.

And this time we went all the way to the end of the trail, which leads to Craggy Flats.

We were actually able to see the beautiful views from the parking lot, too.

The rhododendrons were not quite at peak yet, but the ones that were blooming were gorgeous.

In the Fog

Part I

On Wednesday the girls and I, along with one of Laura's friends, drove up to Craggy Gardens on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I was hoping to see some rhododendrons blooming; I thought they might be near peak up at that elevation.

We went to Roan Mountain last June when they were blooming spectacularly and it was beautiful.

It was a gorgeous, sunshiny morning at the house when we left.  We got on the Parkway and headed for Craggy Gardens.  We saw some pretty views until we got closer to our destination and then we hit the fog.  And I could barely see the road ahead of us, much less any views.

Driving through that thick cloud was a little nerve-racking for me.  I am very thankful that they had just repaved this section of the road about a month ago and the center line paint was still very bright.  That helped me considerably.  And the other people we saw up there also seemed to be taking it nice and slow as well.

I pulled into the parking lot of the visitor center and the girls told me that they still wanted to hike, even if it was foggy and we wouldn't see any views.  They still wanted to walk through the woods.  And walking through the quiet, mysteriously shrouded trees was enjoyable; I'm glad they still wanted to go.  We didn't go all the way to the end of the trail before turning around; the girls were ready to go back and eat their lunch and we wouldn't have been able to see anything from the top of the peak anyway.

At the Craggy Gardens Visitor Center

We could see the rhododendrons that were immediately next to the parking lot.