Hiking -Linville Falls, NC

 Hiking - Linville Falls, NC             5 miles

We started at 9:30 and ended at 1:00, temperature started at 26 degrees and warmed up to 41 degrees, but the skies were beautiful blue and clear and the sun was out!  There are 2 parking lots here. We parked in the gravel parking lot and headed down the path to the river.  We headed right and took the shorter trail, Erwin’s View Trail (1.6 miles) up to Chimney View overlooking the river and a great view of the falls. If you go a bit further, it gets steeper and finally there are some stairs built into the rocks, to the Gorge View Overlook. This is a huge rock surrounded by a wooden railing and rock wall where you can see the start of the falls where it gathers into a pool, then goes down through a rocky gorge. We headed back to where we started and took the path down to the wooden bridge that leads across the river to the visitors center.  From here, you head right and there’s a fork in the path. We took the right fork which leads down to Plunge Basin.  We made it back to the fork and took the more strenuous path which goes up the mountain. It’s definitely harder than the other 2 paths as it’s a higher elevation and steeper. Soon you come to some stairs that go down and from there the challenge began. The path was often filled with huge rocks and tree routes so you definitely have to watch where you’re stepping. There were also lots of muddy spots and then there were several large trees that had fallen across the path. The only way over the trees were to climb over and one tree had an enormous diameter. This went on for quite awhile as we headed down the mountain and at one point we were under a huge, vertical rock cliff. We could finally hear water. The river is lined with huge rocks and we were surprised to see two men sitting there having lunch. We found a rock to climb out on and got a picture of the falls at river level. It was a beautiful spot and worth the treacherous climb down until I remembered we’d have to go back up the same route. We passed several other people on this path and the path back across the river. Everybody was so considerate. They either put their mask on as they passed or stepped far off the path. It was a pleasure to share the path with other considerate people practicing social distancing and enjoying God’s creation!