We shelled out the $40 and decided to cross off visiting the tourist section Grandfather Mountain. As we pulled in, we sadly noticed that we were missing the Scottish Clan Meeting next door. We drove up the winding road passing the Forrest Gump turn and parked in the hiking parking lot.
From here we took the path up below the swinging bridge. The bridge is the highlight of the tourist trap section. Smaller than you think, the boast that it is 1 mile high (that I sits at 5,280Ft). We crossed it and back, checking it of the list. We then took the trailhead that led up the summit trail to the top of the mountain.
The trail was much more interesting than I thought it would be. Weaving in an out of laurel and blueberry bushes, you make it to a set of pine trees and the boulders start appearing. From here, you noticed the start of the system of ladders that lead you up the ridge line to the top of McCull Peak. During this process the humidity and clouds system form on the eastside of the ridge, creating some neat photos.
After topping out the 1st peak, we push on through to the Calloway Peak. The trail lead up and down through 2 saddles adding to increase elevation gain to the hike. As we wound up through the alpine, conifers, the white out of the clouds became closers. The visibility dropped fast. We had a quick snack over looking the west valley and the town of Linville. Quick we pushed on to the high summit of Calloway, then the rains came in while we finished our subway sub.
Quickly pulling out our shells and dry bags. We stuffed the essentials and camera into the packs and hurray quickly down from the high peak. Only several loud rumbles of thunder were heard in the whiteout. The haul back went quickly, but the wore on to the knees and feet. We opted out of the ladder trail return, taking the lower cutoff trail, which probably was worse on our knees and feet.
Finally, on the last leg of the trail, we found a blueberry bush with ripe blueberries.
We finished out our time at the mountain, by visiting their Zoo park, which housed elk, bear, otters, and mountain lions and a final snack at the fudge shop for some dreamsicile fudge.
