Just Off the Parkway

Driving the Blue Ridge Parkway through the section from Linville Falls, NC to near Boone, NC presented us with grand vistas, but there were also opportunities to stop and find some of the smaller sights.

We stopped near Price Lake and were enjoying the solitude of the lake when a kayak quickly came into view from behind several bushes. The oarsman was soon out of close-up range, but seen from a distance, the kayaker seemed to fit the serenity of the scene more appropriately. The setting was certainly meant to be accompanied with oars rather than motors.

Later, as we walked along the trail to photograph the Linn Cove Viaduct (see yesterday's entry), we had time to look down at the composition of the vegetation as well as up to the structure of the Viaduct. We found this one blue-purple flower in a sea of yellow, red, and green.

I regret not knowing the names of these flowers, but at the time I was more concerned with the contrast of the colorful patch with the grayness of the highway watching over it. (I think the yellow flower is the whorled-leaf coreopsis.)

I found myself thinking "How many people have passed by these flowers and wanted to pick them, but resisted?" It looks as though the answer would be "Many."

Finally, as I look at these "lonely" rocks, I hope that the folks here get the rain they need.