Carvers Gap/ Roan Mountain Hike

Today we headed over early to Carvers Gap to hike out on the balds and do a few shorter hikes from the Rhododendron Garden area.  The weather had been iffy most of the week but was forecasted to clear out in the wee hours of the morning.  Well the forecast and reality were quite different.  We arrived at Carvers Gap about 9:30 or so and the parking area was overflowing already, despite the foggy misty conditions.  We first headed out to Round and Jane Balds and the weather had a brief break and the sun and blue skies peeked through the fog.  This afforded us a few views of the valley.  We sat around on a huge rock for a few minutes and then headed down pretty quickly as we noticed the fog rolling back in.  Right about the time we hit Engine Gap the rain started coming down.  We got the raingear out and hurried back to the parking lot.  All except two of us....who took what was thought to be a shortcut and came face to face with a rattlesnake!  Guess he didn't mind the rain.  We decided to see how conditions would be after lunch so we could add to the 3 miles we had already done on the mountain.  We drove up to the Rhododendron Gardens parking area and ate lunch in our vehicles and waited out the showers.  Although we looked like a bunch of drowned rats, we walked around the gardens, which were past prime, so we only saw a few of the Catawba rhododendrons.  After exiting the gardens, we were still fogged in so we decided to call it a day since our other hike options were to overlooks.  Hopefully we will go back again and hike from Carvers Gap to the old Cloudland Hotel site.

Flame Azalea

Jane Bald

Looking out from Jane Bald

A few rhododendron still blooming