The day started

with some clouds that ended up bringing rain until about 11am. But the clouds and sunshine made some interesting light on the gap looking east from the front porch.  We actually started out with pink skies and ended up with this view just before the rain came.    I love the light!

We put off our trip to Table Rock while we waited for the rain to stop.  We could have gone as when we finally got over to Table Rock about 2:30 pm, it had not rained there at all. It is located on the other side of the big mountain so the rain never made it over that ridge.  We traveled six miles on a bumpy dirt ride up and down the mountain to get to the picnic parking lot.   I don't know why they call this the picnic lot since I never saw a picnic table.  But they did provide restrooms.    We started up the trail for the one mile hike...straight up to the rocky top of this mountain.   It took us about 2 hours as the way was very rugged with mostly a rock trail.  Plus stopping for photos!    We made it to the lower portion of the top with an additional trail to get to the very top.   We decided to call it a day as we still had to walk down and then drive the 2 hours back...plus find food for supper.  (We were all concerned about the dogs being shut up in the house for 8 hours but they were okay...just hungry and ready for some time outside!) When we came out of the restaurant, the tire pressure light on one of the tires of the car was very very low...so we stopped at a station to fill it with air but it went down a little on the way to Tate's house.   We made it so hoping they can find the problem tomorrow.   

I put a collage of the hike in the extras.  The first photo on the left is Table Rock from the Blue Ridge Parkway taken on Wednesday.  This is where we were hiking today.    The photos of the Linville Gorge just below show how long and low the gorge is from the top of the mountain in each direction.   The second gorge photo is where we were yesterday to see the waterfall.   You can almost see the river in the middle of the photo.   Some rocky trail photos and a view from the top.  Along with a gentian flower we saw along the trail.  

This area was really amazing to see and standing on the top of the mountain shows the depth and width of the Blue Ridge Mountains in this area which is as far as I could see in every direction.    More trails to walk in the future...but I don't know if the hubby will make this kind of trip again even though he enjoyed the views, he wasn't crazy about how to get to the viewpoint!