Leaving Black Rock Mountain

 Of course! The day we leave, the skies are a gorgeous clear blue. I was able to take a few photos from the overlook as we left the campground.

Camping - Black Rock Mountain State Park

 Not a sunny day, but it wasn’t raining so off we went to hike. Tennessee Rock Trail is rated moderate as it dies go down the mountain, then back up. As we hiked from our campsite, it was a bit longer - a total of 3.6 miles.

A highlight of the day is when we went to visit Tina and Paul. (Tina is the ex-wife of my cousin, Curt). We had a lovely visit and I told her I’m so jealous of the beautiful are where she lives! Sadly, we didn’t think to get a photo!

Camping - Black Rock Mountain

 Darn - we didn't have a sunny day at all. It rained all day, and this is when we really appreciate our trailer. We did go to lunch at Clayton Cafe, which was really nice. I had the vegetarian plate - tomato soup, fried green tomatoes, broccoli salad, side salad and a biscuit. Scotty had chicken pot pie and mac n cheese. Great lunch! For the rest of the day, we played games, watched a movie and planned our May trip to Iowa.

Camping - Black Rock Mountain State Park

 We got this reservation by putting in a request with Wandering Labs. Several openings popped up and we realized people were probably canceling because of predicted rainy weather. It did look like Wednesday was predicted to be clear so we decided to chance it. This park is recognized as being the highest elevation park in North Carolina. It’s a small road that winds up the mountain to the campground. Our site was 31 and it required a tricky back-in. At this point, I’ve seen Scotty manage many challenging turns so I was not worried. The site was very level and catty-corner from the restrooms. A nice site! 

It was early enough in the day and although it wasn’t sunny, we decided to do a short hike. We walked around Black Rock Mountain Lake - almost a mile.

Camping - Marion County

I have been wanting to see the changing leaves for awhile. I realized we had some free days just when the leaves were going to be at their peak so we found a reservation and headed east. On the way over to NC, we stopped at Marion County Park just outside of Chattanooga. It wad only $38 a night. Very nice site and great lake view (although we could hear traffic from I-24).