Chimney Rock

For Presidents Day weekend we took a mini vacation to Asheville. I felt totally frustrated because 2 days was not long enough to see and do everything we wanted to, which means we’ll have to go back sometime. 
On the morning we got there (Grant’s birthday), we went out to breakfast with some friends from church. They were also in Asheville for the weekend. Then we headed to Chimney Rock State Park, which is right on the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains (if you know your geography… or care)

It was horrifying and breathtaking at the same time.
First we walked through this tunnel carved into the mountain. It led us to an elevator… INSIDE the mountain.

You can choose to climb up a trail instead, but we were feeling lazy. So, the elevator brought us up to the top of this monolith. I know, I was wondering what a Monolith is also, so I looked it up…. “a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock such as some mountains, or a single large piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument or building.” So, basically a REALLY big rock.
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Here we are, standing on this ‘really big rock’ overlooking the Hickory Nut Gorge.

Maybe winter wasn’t the best time to visit. Our view was amazing, truly it was, but this is a picture of the same view in the summer…..
WOW!!!!

Now, luckily you can’t see wind, because that is all you would have seen in these pictures. 
The wind was so strong on the rock, I was certain we would blow over. Thankfully, they have a very short, thin guard fence that protected us from certain death.
My kids thought they were going to be blown off, and screamed bloody murder the entire time I was trying to take their picture.

Reagan especially loved the view

Our smiles disguise well the fact that we felt like we were in an Artic ice storm.
 

See those small dots on the rock being blown around in the wind? That’s the kids and I

Oh, and here we are huddled around the American Flag for stability.

I’m painting this really negative picture of Chimney Rock, but in fact we really enjoyed ourselves. It was beautiful and the kids loved it, even if they were a little freaked out. They even wanted to walk up to a higher trail.

That’s where we found this frozen waterfall
 

Kennedy felt like it was safe to make an appearance when we got into the warm gift shop.

The state park has quite a few trails. One leads to the waterfall, Hickory Nut Falls, which was in the film “The Last of the Mohicans”, fyi. It was closed.
But there was a charming little nature trail that my kids loved. It had statues and plaques with all sorts of forest information.

Reagan really enjoyed herself. I have never seen her smile so much… or ask for her picture taken, ever!
”Mom, take a picture of me in the turtle. Mom, take a picture of me on the frog…. on the bear…. on this rock….”

  

And Jefferson found the most awesome stick ever made by Mother Nature.

He brought it home and plans to make some arrows for it… with his new pocket knife that he and Grant were able to manipulate us into buying.
Lucky boys!