Sunrise, Blue Ridge Parkway

7:30 am, sunrise on the Parkway together...

Got my new angel tablecloth (One can never have enough angels around). Coffee, camera, tripod. Nothing finer...

"We can love completely without complete understanding."
~ Norman Maclean

Black Bear Cub

Astonishment and Adrenaline...
This morning at about 7:30, heading north on the Blue Ridge Parkway, just before the Bull Creek Valley Overlook (Milepost 374), I was happy to get this shot of a black bear cub. The bear was in the middle of the road, looked at us head-on, and had a sweet face.

"Life is full of surprises, isn't it?"
 ~ Charlton Heston

Sunrise

Sunrise on the Parkway, near Biltmore Forest... Absolutely beautiful to be out on the road early Sunday morning. No traffic and so much to soak in.

Tunnel & Fog, Parkway

"We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out." ~ Ray Bradbury

Fog on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Riding through the tunnel near Craggy Gardens...

Foglesong Valley, Virginia

"Nature is always hinting at us. It hints over and over again. And suddenly we take the hint." ~ Robert Frost
We rode Hwy 42 along the North Fork Holston River. Beautiful road, stunning vista of Foglesong Valley, looking toward Griffith Knob, Virginia.

New Oak

“Everything we do seeds the future. No action is an empty one.”~ Joan Chittister

Burke's Garden, Virginia

State Route 623, just off Blue Grass Trail 42. Gigantic trees stand, streams meander, and the forest is abloom with fragrant rose-bay rhododendron. No one here for miles and miles...

Here we are near Tazwell, Virginia in Burke's Garden, sometimes referred to as "God's Thumbprint" because of its view from the air. At just over 3000 feet, the bowl-shaped Burke's Garden is the highest valley in Virginia and the story goes that it was George Vanderbilt’s first choice for his mountain retreat before Biltmore Estate.

Looking Glass Rock

Late afternoon ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway. With all the Independence Day activities in downtown Asheville, we had the road virtually to ourselves.

The weather was perfect. We had to stop and put on our jackets and I took this photograph of Looking Glass Rock in Brevard, NC. How stunning a view, amid all of summer's green. I love the rock's beauty and enjoyed hiking to the top of it. We need to do that again soon.

"Truth comes to us from the past, then, like gold washed down from the mountains." ~ Carter G. Woodson

Snack & Shaka Sign

Fun times. Stop for a snack and shaka sign along the Blue Ridge Parkway, Western North Carolina.

"Getting there isn't half the fun-- it's all the fun."
~ Robert Townsend