So, we FINALLY had a chance to get out this past 10 days. Of the 10 days, it rained 9. Being in a tent with two small children and rain can be a test of a man's sanity. It did, however, never exceed 68 degrees while we were camped!
We met up with some folks from Expo first at a place called Mortimer campground. It is a Federal Park. It was at a lower elevation so it tended to be a little more "muggy" than the higher elevation.
Side Note: We really intended for this trip to be not only a get away - no agenda- but we wanted to 'scout' to see if we could find more "remote" places to camp in the future. While we are not "unsociable" people, we long for the type of remote stays that people on the West Coast enjoy with the vast amount of open wilderness there.
We traveled off the Blue Ridge Parkway on something called Roseboro Road (or as noted on the GPS- Hwy 90). As you can see, all washboard dirt and loose gravel road:
Expo Member Mark Kellgren snapped this photo of us as we arrived:
Here was our camp at Mortimer:
The rig from the rear:
And the waterfall about 100 yards or less from camp. The river meandered through the campground:
Mortimer is a Federal Campground policed by Rangers. It costs $10 a day to stay. The camp hosts were fantastic and the rest rooms were clean as they can be.
After our Expo crew departed, we moved on for several reasons. The local crowd is somewhat rowdy and during the week it just didn't feel as safe as when we were there on the weekend. We also wanted to go up in elevation.
We were plagued with rain and some of it extremely heavy, so we opted for another Federal Camp off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Linville Falls campground would have normally NOT been my choice as I knew it would be full for the 4th of July week, however due to the rain, we had the camp almost to ourselves sans a few overnight tent campers that came in each day. There was a place nearby that has primitive (real primitive) camping on another washboard road, but due to the weather, it was simply too risky to get in and out due to the deep mud that these (not often) used sites had getting to them.
Here are some images from our Linville Falls adventure: (Linville Falls Federal Camp is $16/night- Only toilets- no water or elec.)
This was our campsite:
Due to the rain, we knew we were almost completely stuck doing "tourist" type stuff to keep the kids occupied. Despite the rain, we did get in a few days of hiking the gorge and falls. But we did do the Caverns, and gem mining and that type of thing. It was bonding ... which is a good thing.
We spent a good deal of time IN the camper which made me thankful that we didn't have a roof top tent ... or a ground tent. We saw many overnighters with tents ringing out sleeping bags the next morning!
Indoors:
Gem Mining: (actually found a huge silver dollar sized piece of raw turquoise)
A Rare Moment of just overcast sky:
An example of the amount of rain!
My son as we learned he has a fear of heights! Linville Falls was RAGING in the background due to all the rain.
We did get some time to do some smaller falls that didn't require being on the trails for a long time (with rain imminent at any time)
And then a ranger told us about another place for the future to camp. There is a place right out of Marion, NC called Curtis Creek, and while there is a Federal Campground right off the road (washboard dirt and gravel that takes you from Marion all the way up to the Blue Ridge Parkway near Mt. Mitchell), there are lots of dispersed remote camping in designated areas off the road all the way up the Curtis Creek Road. A future place to explore. I will have to call as they have them all blocked off to vehicle camping and more as tent camping, but the boulders were pretty small, so I need to inquire as to being able to use them to trailer/vehicle camp)
Here was a great shot right off the bridge entering Curtis Creek:
All in all, it was a great time to just get away and veg. Even with the rain, we had a great time and were able to scout some future places to stay.
I'll leave you with a shot right near our campsite at Linville:
