Today was a little nostalgic. We came to the end of our days on the blue ridge parkway.

If you have never driven the blue ridge parkway, it is an otherworldly experience. It is 469 miles of 2 lane road, maximum speed 45mph. It is completely uncommercialized. Not even any gas stations, you have to drive down into a nearby city. Every mile is full of beauty. Changing leaves for us in the fall, but I am sure all seasons are also beautiful. Bucolic is the word that came to my mind over and over. It was a place for us to slow down and reconnect with nature. We took eight days to drive it, with no particular destination each day, hiking our way along. 

Our first hike today was to Frying Pan Lookout tower. It was a fairly steep incline, although not a long hike, at 2.7 miles round trip. The tower itself is 5 stories, but, unfortunately, the balcony lookout was closed. This, however, did not bother me. I was painfully reminded of my fear of heights by the second story. I am really not a fearful person, so this weakness of mine really gets under my skin. I was chagrined to see Finn shares this trait with me. He practically crawled up the stairs and had to come down on his bottom.

Today we reached both the highest part of the road and the highest peak on the parkway. 

The highest peak had some beautiful views.

But our final hike was even more beautiful. It was a very steep incline, 500′ in half a mile. Grueling, but worth it. Total today of 4 miles, 1000′ elevation change. 

One more interesting thing to note was that there are about 5 active wildfires within sight. This reminded me very much of home, although it is very unusual for North Carolina. As we drove away, the sun was blood red in the sky, a typical California sight, with that tang of smoke in the air.