Not Just a Walk in the Woods
BLOWING ROCK, North Carolina — Stretching 13.5 miles parallel to the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Tanawha Trail winds around Grandfather Mountain to offer a scenic and challenging hike. Today we explored a two-mile section of the trail from Stack Rock to the Wilson Creek Overlook. Though short in distance, those up-and-down two miles took us almost four hours to traverse.![]() |
Hiking under the Linn Cove Viaduct |
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Linn Cove Viaduct |
Like the viaduct, the Tanawha Trail was built in a manner that would preserve its fragile environment. Intricate but natural-looking stone stairways carry hikers through jumbles of massive boulders. Occasionally stopping to search for letterboxes, we scrambled up and down rock treadways, through small streams, and under granite cliffs, as giant hemlocks loomed overhead.
More than $750,000 was spent in the construction of this demanding trail. Wooden bridges placed to keep hikers away from delicate vegetation were built off-site and lowered into place by helicopters to reduce the damaging consequences of construction.
By the end of our hike, we all felt we had achieved a personal accomplishment. And never a whine was heard, not even from a tired eight-year-old, who had taken about 50% more steps than the rest of us.
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(Photographer not pictured) |