Hiking
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Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls
On a hot summer day, I drove my son and his buddy to Dupont Forest to play in the waterfalls. It is a short hike from the parking lot and brought hours of entertainment. The scenery is gorgeous and even Hollywood noticed. According to my child, this particular waterfall was in the move “The Hunger Games”. It is the perfect spot to cool off and then sit on the rocks and take in the surroundings.
Dupont is about 45-50 minutes from Asheville and close to the adorable town of Brevard. I believe this is an excellent location for those that want to be surrounded by world class hiking and mountain biking but don’t want to be in the city.
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Elk
Mother’s Day was super exciting. My family and friends went to Cataloochee camping. I must say that I enjoy camping with people that know how to camp. My nights of eating doritos for dinner and sitting out in the rain are over. Cataloochee is about an hours drive west of Asheville not far from the TN border. We rode bikes, hiked, threw the baseball, cooked over an open fire and had a fabulous time. In the early morning hours a very friendly elk hung out in our site for about 3 hours. He checked out our tent, looked in my car, would disappear and then reappear and even took a bag that had once contained dog food out into the field to look for left overs. At times we were scared he would charge us but he mostly lurked. It is worth the drive to the valley to see the hundreds of elk that call this area home.
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To Be A Tween
Of course I remember thinking my parents were uncool and I had the world figured out. At 44 I can verify that I don’t have all the answers. Fortunately, I have a tween daughter to educate me.
Today, we went on a girls adventure to Bearwallow Trail about 30 minutes south of town. My daughter fought me tooth and nail but I knew once she got there, she would have a good time. The well maintained trail was about a mile up to a beautiful bald. There was plenty of parking on the side of the road and payoff at the top did not disappoint. I am pretty sure you could see all the way to South Carolina.
I managed to get a smile out of the child (not captured in the photo). She even admitted it wasn’t that bad when we got in the car to return home. We took the long way back, down country roads, listening to music and enjoying the relaxing silence. It was an afternoon well spent with the coolest 12 year old I know.
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