Chimney Rock

Before telling you about our day at Chimney Rock I must give a disclosure statement as follows: Mom, and any others who worry about our safety and hate balconies that hold you in with little more than a thin piece of metal, (Whitney) please know that we are all clearly safe and unharmed. We may have taken Gracie to elevations of almost 2,500 feet from which she could have jumped off a few ledges. Don't worry. We kept her on an extremely tight leash and she behaved perfectly!

Now on with our beautiful day at Chimney Rock State Park!
Brian's wish list of weekend trips from Columbia included a trip to drive down some of the Blue Ridge Parkway as we are only a few hours away. He wanted to see the fall foliage in its prime if possible. We did some research once we had a free weekend and found out we were just past the prime of the leaves changing on the part of the parkway close to us. Typical! I did some exploring into things to do just off the parkway and came across Chimney Rock and Lake Lure. We decided to check it out in hopes that we would have some scenic views and we were not disappointed. You can see for 75 miles from the top of the rock. It was a gorgeous day to go and just in time to catch the leaves before they changed completely! If this is the color of the leaves just past their prime stages, then I can only imagine what this view would be like at its peak!



This is Chimney Rock below with the flag on top and yes, that it is a staircase going to the rock with nothing below! On to the scary part. The park is completely dog friendly so we took Gracie along for the excursion. The downside to taking dogs is that four legged friends are not allowed on the elevator up to the rock. We thought it was no big deal as many took the stairs. Twenty-six flights of stairs later we made it to the lookout! Whew!



This is a view of Lake Lure from the rock.
A little piece of trivia about Lake Lure: Dirty Dancing was filmed here!



Gracie and I were happy to be on top of Chimney Rock! She's glad the stairmaster is over! Gracie wouldn't get too close to those railings!



Brian, my photographer and stair climbing motivator, at Chimney Rock. :)



A close-up of the view from atop Chimney Rock. This gives an idea of where we were standing in the photos above. It's breathtaking at an elevation of 2,280 feet!



In case that view is not enough for you, you can venture even further in the park to Exclamation Point! What does this mean? More stairs! This is another view along the next part of the trail to the point.



The view from Exclamation Point at an elevation of 2,480 feet! Such a gorgeous view of the rolling hills and mountains.



After our 586,789,342 steps back down to the main level at the park, we took a trail which leads to Hickory Nut Falls. This was more of leisurely stroll and not a vertical trail as the others were to the rock. I wish our photo could show you the true height of this waterfall, but it is close of 400 feet tall!



The bottom of Hickory Nut Falls.



We snapped a quick family photo at the bottom of the falls. Does this photo look familiar to anyone? :)



I know I've joked about the stairs and the hiking at the park, but I truly did enjoy our visit! I'm even glad we hiked the stairs with little Gracie instead of taking the easy way out on the elevator! I'm glad I wore my tennis shoes but almost wish I had worn some workout clothes for that hike! I'm so thankful for the time we have gotten to take exploring as our little family. This was the perfect weekend day trip.