Looking down from the parking lot of the Alpen Acres Motel across from the row of rooms: The sign for our motel near Blowing Rock, NC where it stands high above US-321 just off of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The trees across the highway are near peak color.
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After a leisurely start from the house of our hosts in Asheville, NC we drove back up onto the Blue Ridge parkway. Here is a last look back at Asheville. Note the power plants.
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As we head west the range gets pointier. Thus more tunnels. I tried several types of exposures to show either the interior of tunnels, or the light at the end of them. But here is a sort of impressionistic view of one taken with a wrong exposure that seems somehow more interesting.
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Finally, we have actual views from the overlooks. We stop at one and I get to sit and watch the cloud shadows rolling over the colorful hills by setting up a time lapse camera.
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Karen takes a shot of me peacefully enjoying the scene. As we sat there, many other tourists stop, take a snapshot and move on. The hair-tossing fem to the right was one of a different set that I'd noticed: Girls who were using the scenery as a backdrop for portfolio stills. At least, that's what their interactions with their photographers led me to think.
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As the time lapsed at that lookout point, our hosts from Asheville (Dennis and Fran) pulled up with a couple of guests they were showing around. So we got a picture with them.
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Karen got a phone call about an hour later, when we were at Log Hollow. We got our first cell phone in our 40's, so it still amuses me that we can be in touch when we are far from home.
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Another view from the Log Hollow overlook
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We finally have good views, and this may be the peak color Saturday up here.
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Karen takes a picture of Dan, taking this picture of the waterfall.
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Another pair of turnabout simul-pix
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Testing the wind at Caney Fork Overlook (elev: 5650)
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Tipping my hat to the high point of our journey.
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A sign that the end of our travel today is near. Smokey Mtn is tomorrow's goal.
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Pulled in again to the visitor's center. The view is very different today than it was yesterday.
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So from the Visitor's Center, we climbed the trail up to the actual highest point on the Blue Ridge. This picture is just an observation of textures.
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Just Dan taking a shot of the Smokeys from the Blue Ridge
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Karen tips her hat on our way back down.
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We decided to spend the night in Cherokee. Unfortunately, Wille Nelson was playing the casino, and there were no rooms. We had a friendly concierge at one of the many motels call around. Finally, he found a room just off the reservation. Here you see the old highway and the motel that got all the business before there were actual hotels on the reservation. We spent the night in a cabin on the river that marks the boundary of the res.
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We drove back onto the res, parked, and walked along the river as the sun set.
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The back door of the cabin there opens on a small porch so close above the river that people can fish from it.
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