Pisgah Forest Camping & Hiking Trip

Pale Jewel weed on  Blue Ridge Parkway

Pisgah Forest Camping & Hiking Trip

August 26 -29th, 2011

Dana & Kenny Koogler
**Repaired blog with photos changed**

      We left on Thursday morning and headed over the mountain to Western NC

on our first trip with Kenny's new truck and our new, non-hail damaged camper!  The drive over went by fast and Kenny's new Chevy Duramax diesel performed well.  It towed the camper like it wasn't even back there!  The previous truck was getting some age on it and the transmission was overheating while towing the travel trailer.   We stayed at Adventure Village Campground about 10 miles on the other side of Brevard, NC.

Kenny's beautiful new Chevy Duramax Diesel!  There's just somethin' women love about a pickup man. (at least for this gal)


                 We got the camp set up and decided to fit in a short hike for day one.
We stopped to see Looking Glass Falls, a popular roadside attraction. When we pulled up there was not one soul there!  As we were leaving one couple pulled up. This was a rarity.
We hiked The Pink Beds, but were losing the light and the trail was flooded by a beaver dam.



Pink Beds Loop Trail

We decided to give up on the trail and head quickly up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to try to see the sunset.  We made it just in time!

Sunset on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Pisgah Forest

      The next day we  hiked two mountain tops that face one another. Frying Pan Mountain to the fire tower first then next we hiked to the top of Mt. Pisgah to the observation platform. 


View from the Frying Pan Mountain Fire Tower.   I liked this so much I composed a gallery of all the fire towers and fire tower sites I've visited in TN and NC.  I'll post a separate blog about those.



View from the Mt. Pisgah Observation Platform. 

The hike up there was steep! It was not that long, but the last 0.7 miles gained 712 feet.
Knees to the Shoulders! Hup! We visited the Buck Spring Lodge site along the parkway between mountain tops. It was really pretty as well as an interesting historic site. It was the Summer home of the Vanderbilts.   Frying Pan Mountain was a gorgeous hike with loads of Summer wildflowers and butterflies!


Roadside full of cosmos at Cherryfield near our campground.



 Side view of Big Bradley Falls through the trees. I can say this now as I repair this blog.. I later went back
with Cathy and visited it from the base which was a much more fun, satisfying wayto visit this falls.   

     Saturday we drove down to Saluda, NC below Hendersonville.  We visited several waterfalls that were new to us.  Pearson Falls was a disappointment.  There was not enough water to make it worthwhile.  Big Bradley Falls was so so.  Little Bradley Falls was the best though.
We are planning to go back during a time of much more rainfall and water volume to revisit all four waterfalls in the area. We will also hike to the base of Big Bradley Falls. If you don't go to the base it isn't worth the trip. 



Little Bradley Falls near Saluda, NC

     Sunday we got up and cooked a big breakfast of pancakes and bacon. We squeezed in a short hike before our noon checkout time.  We hiked to Cedar Rock Creek Falls in Pisgah Forest.  We went by Sliding Rock also, but it was too cold to slide this morning!


Cedar Rock Creek Falls is about 30 feet high and very picturesque. Pisgah Forest, NC


      We had a safe trip home. It was good to get away from it all and spend time with my spouse.  I had been working and traveling to Virginia to see family so I had not seen him in about 2 weeks!  He's my best friend, lover and partner in crime. ;^D
Looking forward to many more adventures!