Hiking: Graveyard Fields

A-hiking we will go, a-hiking we will go, hi ho hi ho, a-hiking we will go!

Back at it again, my mom and I took to the mountains for a quick hike! The Graveyard Fields/Graveyard Falls trail has been on our list to hike for a while now. The hike is right off of the Blue Ridge Parkway at mile marker 418.8. There's a large overlook area with a restroom facility and a map of the trail so it's easy to find and not too far from Asheville!

When we arrived it was misting rain and looked cloudy but as we started, the sun came out and it was beautiful! We started out going down a stone staircase near the bathrooms. It's just a very short bit until we arrived at a bridge/platform for viewing the lower falls. If you turn right after the bridge, there is a swimming area from what I understand, however we went straight/left/up to continue on to the Upper Falls. The trail weaves through blueberry bushes! Many people were picking them and taking them home! It also has wooden planks for much of the trail which is kind of interesting.

Lower Falls

The trail was soooo muddy! There were a lot of places where we had to take short little side routes off the main trail to avoid giant mud pits. It seems that it may often be this way becaue the little side routes were well worn and easy to navigate back to the main path. The trail does twist and turn a lot, though, so at times we were afraid we were getting lost! Follow signage for the Upper Falls whenever you see it.

Upper Falls
After about 1.5 miles maybe, it's noticably steeper as you approach the Upper Falls. It really isn't a long hike but it took us a bit longer to navigate the mud. We enjoyed the beautiful falls and had a snack on a big rock, then continued back. You will backtrack for a short while, and then come to an intersection where you bear right to loop back to the parking area. On the way back, you cross a rather nice and new bridge with great views! You finish at the other side of the parking area.
View from the Bridge

Overall, we really enjoyed this hike! I always love waterfalls! It's pretty easy and level with the exception of the end near the Upper Falls and I love that it's close by to Asheville. Give this hike a try!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Not Your Mother's Cookie Dough - Gluten Free, Sugar Free, Bean Free!

Image
You've seen edible cookie dough recipes all over the World Wide Web. You've some cookie dough with garbanzo beans, cookie dough with flour, dough with sugar, without sugar, maybe even with sweet potato. But, have you ever seen cookie dough with... Cauliflower. That's right, folks. I said cauliflower. And then I said "folks" which is weird. The idea popped into my head as I was thinking about the versatility of cauliflower! It's used as rice, as a mock mashed potato, as pizza crust, even added into smoothies! So what can't this vegetable do!? This recipe is SO SIMPLE, you have to try it! Not Your Mother's Cookie Dough Makes 2 generous servings. Ingredients: 210 g cauliflower, steamed then cooled 1/4 cup powdered peanut butter 1/2 tsp imitation butter flavor 1 tsp vanilla extract 1/4 tsp salt 2 tbsp almond milk sweetener to taste (I used approximately 1/4 - 1/2 cup erythritol)  2 tbsp mini chocolate chips (I used KNOW foo
Read more

Gut Healthy Gummy Bears! Keto Friendly

Image
Team Sour or Team Sweet? I'm team sour all the way! These gummies are surprisingly easy to make if you have a gummy bear mold (they're very inexpensive on amazon!) and they have the gut-health benefits of prebiotic fiber and gelatin! First they're sour, then they're sweet. Ingredients: 40g VitaFiber IMO syrup  1 tbsp gelatin liquid stevia to taste (I used orange stevia) 1/2 cup water Directions: Heat the mixture on the stove until bubbling.  Use the dropper to fill the gummy bear molds.  Place in fridge until set.  Just before eating, toss the gummy bears in a mixture of citric acid powder, and granulated sweetener of choice (I used a monk fruit/erythritol blend).  Voila! Sour gummies! 
Read more

Keto Meringues! Sugar Free!

Image
I recently had the idea to make Meringue cookies and my curiosity was piqued at the idea of making sugar free meringue cookies. I wondered if it would work!  3 calories a piece?! I'll take 10!  I took to Google, and to my surprise there were recipes with Splenda, erythritol, stevia and beyond! I decided to try my hand at sugar free meringues with an erythritol based sweetener I just purchased recently. The brand is Swerve and I purchased it from Luckyvitamin.com. It claims to have no aftertaste! Meringues can be a bit tricky to set up due to humidity and given that it was a hot August day in North Carolina, I think they turned out pretty well! The texture was good on most of them but a few of them were still a bit soft in the middle.  Factors working against me: I didn't have enough egg whites I didn't have cream of tartar I was attempting sugar free I didn't have parchment paper Humidity You may be thinking, why even bother? Well, I don
Read more