Winter Time And The Parkway Have Its Rewards
A view off the escarpment ...
I enjoy solitude and the Parkway can provide it – particularly in winter.
Early one morning my decision was to get on the Parkway at Hiway 80 near Burnsville, NC. No one would normally go here because the Parkway is closed north towards Little Switzerland (because of downed trees) and the Parkway is closed south of the Mt. Mitchell turnoff (because of a fallen retainer wall at Craggy Gardens). The evening before I was a guest of Bill and Judy Carson, proprietors of the Orchard at Altapass. And from their front porch at Little Switzerland and looking south off the escarpment, the valley above Marion was a literal sea of sloshing cloudcover. We could see blue sky above and the the tops of the South Mountains below — an occurrence of visuals which only happens maybe once a year.
If only this would wait until morning …
In my round trip to Mt. Mitchell the next morning, I did not encounter one automobile — only a deer which proved fatal only for her. It almost spoiled my day, but what I was to behold was a unique sunrise that must have been prepared just for me.
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