October 25, 2015 - Pisgah Forest near Brevard

Our plans for returning to Mortimer this coming week were canceled with the forecast of rain on Tuesday and Wednesday.  We'll have to come up with another camping plan for later in the week into the week end.  We both really wanted to get out today and decided to head into the Pisgah once again.  The colors around this area are really popping and we didn't feel like driving too far.  As soon as we passed the stone pillars on 276, the 'oooo's and ahhhh's' began.  The color along the road was absolutely amazing.

Our first stop was to be the Daniel Ridge Loop trail.  We were hoping that this color would also be along the Davidson River in that area.  The parking area was nearly full when we got there and there were quite a few people camping in the dispersed sites nearby and along the trail.  Unfortunately, the color was better along the trail than it was along the river.  It was still nice, but more yellows and only a few reds. 

We made it as far as where the trail turns to the right to follow Right Fork, then decided to try our luck someplace else. Before we headed back to the car, we did go up and check out Daniel Ridge Falls.
 

Daniel Ridge Falls

From here we wanted to check out a view of Looking Glass Rock from the Bennett Gap Trail, so we headed down to FR477.  The color along this gravel road was spectacular as we leisurely made our way up to the trail head.  Unfortunately, the good light for this view was in the morning and it was now about 2PM.  We thought we had time to make it up to the Parkway for a view of the Rock before the light faded.  Everybody and their brother apparently had the same idea, but that was to be expected on a Sunday afternoon.  The color along the rest of 276 up to the Parkway and then on the Parkway was beautiful.  By now though, it was late afternoon and overcast, so the pictures of Looking Glass Rock turned out horrible.  All the Photoshopping in the world wasn't going to help these, so I have nothing to show.  Our last hope for the day was maybe something along 276 as we headed back down the mountain.  Our next stop was Sliding Rock.  The color was pretty good around the slide and there were actually 2 people sliding.

Sliding Rock

 

From there we pulled over at the cascades on Looking Glass Creek right next to the road just a short distance from Sliding Rock.  We spent quite a bit of time here before heading back to the house to consider our next outing.