Black Rock Mountain State Park

Since this is my last weekend of freedom, we decided to drive up to Black Rock Mountain State Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  It was a perfect day for a hike.  We ate our picnic lunch on the summit where it was only 76 degrees. 

Gumbo was so happy to get to come!  When we were packing the car, every time I would carry something out he would jump in the van, scared that we might go without him.  And then when I would go back in, he would jump out thinking that maybe I wasn't going.

After lunch, we took a short hike down to the waterfall.

Cool!  A bear cave!  Do you think there is a bear in it?  Let's go look!

Due to the drought, the waterfall was barely a trickle...see it?  Apparently, it is supposed to looked like this.

The hike down to the "falls" was only a quarter of a mile.  The hike back up was at least a mile and a half.  Straight up.

Black Rock is Georgia's highest state park.  We crossed over the Eastern Continental Divide.

The view was gorgeous.  Unfortunately, it was very overcast so you couldn't see as far as on a clear day.

Look!  The whole family!

We realized we were only about 15 miles from Highlands, NC, so we went on up to look around.  It started raining and as we passed an overlook, this is what we saw:

The steam was rising from the valley floor.  It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.