October 10, 2006

October 10, 2006

Today we make the short drive to an attraction called Chimney Rock. Chimney Rock is a private forest, its centerpiece being a mountain ridge with a large, exposed granite face along one side over a mile in length. It also has a flat barrel-shaped outcropping that gives the park its name. The main reason I wanted to stop was that the park was the site of the film, “Last of the Mohicans”.

This hiking park has gone out of its way to cater to the sedentary type. They have an elevator cut into the rock to take you up to the top of Chimney Rock. We defer and take the manual route. Even that route is almost 100% wooden steps and catwalks. My feet barely touch any rocks. The top of Chimney Rock gives us a stunning vista of the beautiful landscape. From there we take the couple mile hiking loop that traverses the top of the ridge to a waterfall and back along a ledge along the exposed granite face. Both the waterfall and the granite ledge played a big part in the climax of the movie. I just don’t remember the guardrail and boardwalk in the scene.

Before leaving we also hike the loop trail to the bottom of the waterfall. The waterfall is a wisp of water that rolls down a couple hundred-foot rock face. Pretty.

Afterwards we drive east of Asheville and stay at a beautiful hilly-forested campground with immaculate amenities. The Asheville area has many great campgrounds to choose from.