Today we travelled from Bristol, VA to Little Switzerland, NC and once again we were treated to beautiful roads and magnificent Autumn/Fall colours along the way. (Unfortunately it was also a Sunday in a peak tourism period so we also had to deal with lots of ‘Sunday’ drivers which almost resulted in one head-on accident, a couple of side-swipe near-misses and numerous instances of oncoming drivers crossing over the centre line.)

The highlights of the day were driving along the Linn Cove Viaduct and a visit to Grandfather Mountain. I had found out about a ranger guided ‘Fall Colours’ tour at Grandfather Mountain some weeks ago – it was only offered once a day over four consecutive weekends and yesterday was the last time it was being offered this year. Ron and I had expected a large number of people to be lining up and jostling for prime position at the starting point and were very surprised – and pleased – to find that we were two of only ten people on the tour! The ranger who conducted the tour was very knowledgeable and it was a great experience. After the tour we headed for the ‘Mile High Swinging Bridge’ near the top of Grandfather Mountain – it was very cold and very windy up at 5,282 feet!

After leaving Grandfather Mountain we headed back to the Linn Cove Viaduct to take one of the short walks from the visitor centre and to get some photos of the viaduct and from there we headed to Little Switzerland to stay for the night.

 

Today’s Photos


 

Today’s Route


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(Click on the image above to open an interactive copy of the map)