Shining Rock Hike with Brenda
Shining Rock Wilderness, NC
Friday, September 30th, 2016
Brenda and me at Shining Rock
I took a vacation day from work on Friday to join Brenda on a hike into the Shining Rock Wilderness of North Carolina. Since I needed to finish up by around 3:00pm we decided to get an early start.
I decided to get an even earlier start to make it up to the Blue Ridge Parkway in time for sunrise. This was definitely worth the 5:00am wake up time!
Morning Twilight over Looking Glass Rock from the Blue Ridge Parkway
Morning Twilight along the Blue Ridge Parkway
Morning Twilight along the Blue Ridge Parkway
Sunrise from the Blue Ridge Parkway
Sunrise along the Blue Ridge Parkway
After sunrise I met up with Brenda and we started our hike up the Art Loeb Trail from the FR816 Trailhead. Since the trailhead starts at just below 5,900 feet, the climb up to the 6,200 foot Black Balsam Knob was short and relatively easy.
The early start rewarded us with views above clouds!
Early Morning at Black Balsam Knob
A great spot to set up a tent!
view from Black Balsam Knob
Black Balsam Knob Panorama
Islands in a Sea of Clouds
We continued on along the ridge line to the summit of Tennent Mountain where the awesome views continued!
Brenda at Tennent Mountain
view from Tennent Mountain
Brenda at the Center of a Tennent Mountain Panorama
Clouds Above Clouds
Me at Tennent Mountain
We descend down to Ivestor Gap and continued on the Art Leob Trail past Grassy Cove Top, Flower Knob and on to Shining Rock where we took a nice break for lunch and to enjoy the views and the very unique White Quartz Mountaintop!
Shining Rock
Brenda at Shining Rock
view from Shining Rock
Rather than going back the way we came, we decided to make the return hike via a Figure 8 Loop taking the easy Ivestor Gap Trail back to Ivestor Gap.
Shining Rock Wilderness Sign at Ivestor Gap
Looking up at Grassy Cove Top
GPS Track from our Hike
For Brenda's Interactive GPS link clink here:
http://brendajwiley.com/gps/black_balsam_shining_rock.html
From Ivestor Gap we took the Graveyard Ridge Trail which took us about 500-feet below the ridge line we hiked earlier in the day.
Looking up at the tiny Humans on top of Tennent Mountain
The highlight of this section of trail was the incredible display of Monarch Butterflies! I have never seen this many butterflies in one spot! I could not capture the mass number of butterflies in any of my photos but I did convince a few individual specimens to pose for me!
Monarch Butterfly along the Graveyard Ridge Trail
Another Type of Butterfly along the Graveyard Ridge Trail
Monarch Butterfly along the Graveyard Ridge Trail
Monarch Butterfly along the Graveyard Ridge Trail
The last stretch of trail was a short but steep section of the Mountains-to-Sea (MST) back up to the trailhead parking area along FR816
View from the Mountains to Sea Trail
Brenda along the Mountains to Sea Trail
Me along the Mountains to Sea Trail at the Yellowstone Prong Headwaters
We finished up right at 3:00pm giving me plenty of time to make it back to Spartanburg and accompany my wife Amy at her Company Picnic.
Jack and Amy Swing Selfie at the JM Smith Corp Company Picnic
Amy and Jack Ferris Wheel Selfie at the JM Smith Corp Company Picnic
Ferris Wheel Sunset over the JM Smith Corp Company Picnic
This was an awesome day!
The complete set of photos is posted here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8146392@N05/sets/72157674761232995
No comments:
Post a Comment