A Fun Surprise Along the Cherohala Skyway

 

Blairsville, Georgia (high 70, low 62)

 

We have had quite a bit of rain this past week, with more on the way, including some potentially severe weather tomorrow.

The weather may ruin the fall foliage, so we wanted to see what we could.

Yesterday, we decided to take a drive to the Cherohala Skyway.  It’s a pretty scenic byway,  which runs east-west from North Carolina, to Tennessee.

We started on the North Carolina side.

We stopped for lunch and saw this pretty tree.

I haven’t seen one of these lately.  I understand they are updating all these signs to something more modern.  That’s too bad.

We were expecting decent weather, but not long after we got into North Carolina, here is what we found.

The rain came down pretty hard for awhile, and we pulled over to a scenic overlook to wait out the rain.

There wasn’t much of a view, was there?

 

Thankfully, the rain stopped and the color appeared.

The Cherohala starts at about 850 elevation, and goes up to 5377 feet in elevation.

The prettiest colors this year, were on the North Carolina side at about 3600 feet.  Unfortunately, there was no overlook at the prettiest place, so it wasn’t real easy to get any photos.

It was really beautiful.

I love seeing the smoke/clouds hanging onto the mountain.

 

 

Once we started going up to higher elevations, it looked like the color had peaked and there were a lot of bare trees.

 

When we approached the highest peak, we ended up in the clouds and had absolutely no visibility.

Soon, it cleared up and we only got a little more rain the rest of the day.

We stopped at a few more overlooks, but found the colors to be less impressive on the Tennessee side.  Last year, it was the opposite. 

Interesting waterfalls, coming out of the rocks.

 

 

We stopped at a rest area to use the bathroom. It was so disgusting that I quickly changed my mind, and exited gagging and choking.  Yuck.   Why do women feel the need to urinate all over the floor?

It was a pretty area, though.

 

We stopped at another overlook and found some pretty colors.

and a handsome boy

a couple of old people

 

On the Tennessee side of the Cherohala, there is a beautiful waterfall, and you can drive right by it.

It’s a few miles off the Skyway, but worth the trip.

Taken from the truck window.

We parked the car and got some more shots.

We walked along the road beside the Tellico River and found a few more waterfalls.

This one was probably 15-20 feet high.

A lady came by and told us that two kayakers would be coming down the river and over the falls. 

We had enough warning to be able to find a good viewing point.

We waited.

Here they come.

 

 

 

He went smoothly right over the waterfall and landed without turning over.

Soon, the orange kayak attempted the same run.

 

This one ended up flipping over twice and had a little trouble getting upright.

It was apparent he knew exactly what to do, and soon he was upright and on his way.

Later in the day, we happened to see these two young boys walking up the road.  We recognized their helmets.   I got their email address (hope their parents don’t think I’m a pervert), so that I can send them some of the pictures I took.

Here are the two daredevils. They seemed to be very nice young men.   The one in the red kayak had on a Go Pro camera, so I’m to check out Youtube and see if I can find his video.

We walked along the roadway for a while enjoying the river and rapids.  We ran across a few unlucky snakes.

 

We decided to walk up on the trail behind the main waterfall.  I was a little concerned that it would be slippery due to all the wet rocks and leaves, but it was fine.

It was a short trail and Al only took the back pack to store the cameras in case it decided to rain again.

 

 

The view from the top wasn’t nearly as nice as as from the bottom, but it was a different perspective.

 

We went back down,  took an few more pictures and headed home. 

The approaching severe weather may ruin the fall colors, so we’re glad we at least got to see some color.