Chimney Rock State Park

I knew we should get to the state park early because of the heat and the trails we wanted to do before nap time. Since we wake up pretty early with the kids, it just depended on how quickly we could get out the door. I think we were about an hour behind what we would have liked, but we still got there early enough to get a parking spot right below Chimney Rock. We then walked through the 198 foot tunnel and took the elevator up 26 stories (in 30 seconds) to the rock. We each wore a child carrier, complete with child, and we were glad we left the stroller in the car because we had to climb a lot of stairs for one of the hikes. I decided to put Holden facing out again today, since he really seemed to like that at the Biltmore yesterday.

For Chimney Rock, you can climb up or take the elevator. Then you walk across a bridge and climb a set of stairs to get on the rock. (One of the final scenes of The Last of the Mohicans was filmed there.) From the top you get a view of Hickory Nut Gorge and Lake Lure. (This is the closest I've been to a scene from Dirty Dancing...my all-time favorite movie! The lake scenes were filmed there.)

Behind us (below), you can see one of the sets of stairs we were about to climb and The Opera Box, which is just above my right shoulder.

Before we headed up to Exclamation Point, we took a couple more pictures on the rock. (Elevation: 2,280 feet)

Above is Chimney Rock from the set of stairs that were in the background of that picture with Jesse. (When we were coming down from this hike, there were more people standing around on it so I'm glad I took this when I did.) Below is a picture of Devil's Head.

Here's the highest point in the state park. It's called Exclamation Point. (Elevation: 2,480 feet) The "hike" wasn't all that fun, as it was staircase after staircase...not my favorite thing. We stopped to catch our breath and have some water and enjoy the view. It was extremely hot out and very humid. This hike offered the best view of Hickory Nut Gorge. It was .7 miles roundtrip.

On the way back down, we walked into the Opera Box and got a couple more pictures.

Then we made our way back down to the base of Chimney Rock via the elevator. When we exited the elevator, we were very happy to know that we had come to the park earlier in the morning, as there were several people waiting in line to go up! We took a break in the cool tunnel before heading out to the car, where again, we were happy we got there when we did because there was no more parking and people were having to be shuttled up the mountain by an old school bus.

We walked down the mountain a little bit to the start of the Hickory Nut Falls Trail. It was 1.5 miles roundtrip and at the end of the trail, you could see the waterfall, which dropped 404 feet. We were glad we didn't use the stroller again. In fact, this time Fletcher wanted to walk, so he went on his very first hike! He walked all the way to the waterfalls. Jesse put him in the carrier to do the walk back.

Once we were at the waterfall, Jesse took Fletcher over to the base of it. They got wet and walked around by it. Fletcher was so excited about it, but then scared if Jesse tried to have him stand there on his own.

We were pushing it with nap time by this point, so we decided to skip the Great Woodland Adventure Trail, which is geared toward children. Instead, Jesse stayed in the car with Holden and I took Fletcher into the Animal Discovery Den for a couple minutes. We also walked outside and saw Grady the Groundhog, the park mascot. (My picture of him is fuzzy.) We also got to see Virginia Opossum.

We left the park and ordered sandwiches to go from Old Rock Cafe, just outside the park. We ate in the car on the way home and had nap time. When Fletcher woke up, Jesse took him to the hotel pool to play while I stayed in the hotel room with Holden while he napped.

The next morning we knew we would have to head back home, but we were happy that we got to see a little bit of Asheville, enjoy the Biltmore, and do some trails at Chimney Rock State Park.