 |
Web Hosting by Netfirms | Free Domain Names by Netfirms |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tearing up this mountain would be like "taking a switchblade to the Mona Lisa." Hugh Morton |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Key Points:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Tanawha Trail is a 13.5 mile long trail that more or less runs parallel to the Parkway from Beacon Heights Parking Area at mile marker 305.5 to Price Lake at mile marker 297. There is a storied history here. The Parkway used to end at Linn Cove because Hugh Morton, the owner of Grandfather Mountain refused to allow the road to cut through some highly sensitive ecological areas. A plan was devised to create the Linn Cove Viaduct that would run along the mountain without actually damaging it. The Viaduct is really quite a miracle of modern engineering and has been featured in all sorts of commercials since its completion to much fanfare in 1987. The Tanawha Trail was completed and opened in 1993 and again we can thank Hugh Morton for his diligence in protecting the fragile environment while still finding a way to allow hikers to enjoy the area. There are indigenous plants in that area that grow nowhere else in the world. It is imperative that hikers stay on the trail at all times, there are places where the ground is a thin layer over rocks so straying off the trail will destroy it. Some areas of the trail are so fragile that there are boardwalks over it to keep hikers completely off the ground. I have heard that the boardwalks and bridges were lowered in by helicopter to minimize damage, but that may just be a legend. I think that everyone should do the entire trail once just to see it all, but if you through hike it, you really need to do the two car trick. I thought about taking the bikes and hiking up and biking down, but since my parents live about 5 miles from the parkway, it’s just easier to have them drop us off. The best thing about the trail, other than the fact that it goes through some of the most magnificent scenery in the area, is that it is easy to hike in segments either doubling back on the trail or taking one of the access trails to the Parkway and walking back to the car. You should be warned though that foot traffic is verboden on the Viaduct and somewhat discouraged on the Parkway, but the actual distance between segments doesn’t require that much road travel. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Beacon Heights to Linn Cove: 1.5 miles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| This is the official start of the
Tanawha Trail and winds along through the woods, over some rocks and emerges
at the Linn Cove visitor center. It's kind of an odd thing to spend an hour
hiking through the woods, not running into another person, and then suddenly
emerge into the usually busy visitor center complete with gift shop and
restrooms.
We had kind of an odd moment there the first time we hiked the Tanawha. We asked the park ranger if there was water on the trail or if we should carry it with us. She told us that there was no water on the trail. I thought that was odd since looking at the map it appeared as though there was so I tried to clarify that we had a water filter. Again she assured us that there was no water on the trail. I'm still not quite sure what that was about because there is water everywhere. I thought that maybe the thinking was that she didn't want to encourage us to leave the trail to get to the streams, but there are several places where it wouldn't be necessary so who knows, maybe she had just had enough stupid questions for one day. Once you get through playing around at the visitor's center, head down the parking lot along the sidewalk to pick the trail back up. From here the trail starts out wide, smooth, and paved but don't worry it won't last. The trail takes you under the viaduct and then you climb up through some large rocks to a view from above the viaduct. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wilson Creek Overlook from Linn Cove Viaduct (1.3 miles) | ||
| This part of the trail flattens out somewhat and passes some more of the imaginary streams full of water until you get to a large rock formation with a pretty amazing view of the valley below. |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
