Color Around Every Turn..........

We continued our journey down the Blue Ridge Parkway today. We actually went into section #5 for our trip to Linville Falls and Linville Caverns, about 30 miles south of Boone. Click on the pictures to see them bigger.


Color Around Every Turn.....

We arrived at Linville Falls at 11:15 a.m. We had to hike to the Falls. We crossed a bridge over the waters that flowed to the falls.
Other side of the bridge.....water flowing towards the bridge.
Some wild flowers along the water. The wind was blowing so hard at times that I'm surprised this picture turned out as clear as it did.
I took lots of pictures trying to capture all the leaves that were blowing and falling.
Upper falls.

More hiking to view the lower falls. Beautiful colors!
There are two spots to view the lower and upper falls from. The lower elevation of the two is from Chimney View.
Hiking today reminded me HOW out of shape I have become!! WHEW! I was GLAD for the many stops to take pictures. Including this creative moment, LOL! I wanted to capture those beautiful leaves way up at the top of the trees, but I wanted us to be in the picture, too! I laid the camera on a log and guessed at the angle for capturing the trees...and us! The first try was a good guestimate, but was too dark, so I turned the flash on. PERFECT!
OK, FINALLY! This is the Erwin View from a higher elevation than the Chimney View. I'm soooo glad there were no more Views! :) You can see the lower falls and just a bit of the upper falls.
This is the wide angle view.
After the Falls tour, we headed to the Caverns. It was guided tour, so we had to wait for about 1/2 hour before our tour started. These trout are at the mouth of the caverns. The employees feed them every morning, so I guess they must hang out here all day!
These stalactites were broken off during a flood in the cavern in the 1980's I believe.
Fake bat!
Below us - stagnated water, but clear. I thought the flash bounced off glass til our guide explained that it was stagnated water. There have been lines dropped 250 feet down into the waters and the bottom was not reached. There have been divers to try to find out how deep it goes, but it is too narrow. It is very narrow where we are all standing on this grate (a group of maybe 10 people).
Here shows the single file space we had to walk through. The guide warned that if anyone was claustrophobic that they might want to stay behind or at least at the end of the line!
REAL bat! Reminded me of a tiny mouse.
Yep, 25 minutes later, the trout are still there! There are 3 different kinds.....brown, rainbow and speckled.
We headed back to Boone and went to a Christian bookstore and a regular bookstore.....AFTER we ate lunch (at 4:00, I might add) LOL! Now we are hanging out in the hotel.

We have really enjoyed the view this weekend! Beautiful!!