Rivers and waterfalls

We spent another day out in the natural world at the Watauga River (the top left corner) and then at Linville River and Falls.   

Our first stop was Valle Cruces where there is a park that has a walkway a mile or so along the river.   A very calm river that looked more like a creek at this area.  We did see some fly fishermen doing there thing but I don't think there were are fish around.  

After a sandwich, we went to Linville Falls.  The river was so pretty and the series of falls were great.  Lots of walking again.   In the photo of the waterfall with the big rock face you can see people below the falls.  We were going to walk down there but ran of out of time.   (Jerry walks no faster than turtle speed up or down hill..sigh!)    I do want to walk down that hill some other time.  

The fall color was nice at the falls but not as vibrant as yesterday.   The last photo in the lower right is Grandfather Mountain and you can see the swinging bridge spanning the two rocks.  I have walked on this several times..it doesn't swing anymore since they redid it out of metal instead of a rope and wood bridge (I walked on that too and it was scary!).   A really clear day to be able to see the bridge from the highway where we pulled over.     

 We were going to go to Grandfather but since the area around here is going to be packed with tourists we changed our mind.  There is a Harvest Festival at Valle Crucis, the annual Wooly Worm Festival at Banner Elk and a couple other festival things.  Traffic on the two lane roads will be terrible.  So tomorrow my son is going with us to visit the Table Rock State Park which is in an area near Linville but on the other side of the gorge. Away from the crowds.    Looking forward to seeing it and spending time with my big boy!