Day 23 (November 24th)

Today we left Asheville on our last day of our adventure. Even though we were in thick-as-pea-soup fog, we decided to take our chances and visit Mount Mitchell. What a good decision that was.

At first, driving through the Blue Ridge Parkway was quite hairy, as the fog allowed only about 25 feet of visibility and the sun frequently blinded us through it. However, we finally left the fog. Feeling glad for the weather, I innocently looked out my window to see the mountains. I saw the spectacular breakthrough of clear sky, as we suddenly rose above the clouds. It was like nothing I had ever seen before, or even had imagined.

Every peak of the mountains stuck out of the bed of clouds like islands in an ever-extending sea. The only thing you have ever seen close to it is looking at clouds from an airplane above it, except that this time the earth and the sky are inter-mingling. It’s hard to put into words what this was like, so I will use pictures.

After this awe-inspiring view, we finally ascended to near the top of Mount Mitchell. We drove to the campground near the summit that we infamously stayed 4 years ago, and hiked up to the top of the mountain through beautiful meadows and boreal forests. It reminded me of Mirkwood in the Lord of the Rings. Each coniferous tree trunk was thickly covered in moss, and the ground was littered with lichens, stumps and jutting rocks. The interesting thing about this is that only 100 or so lower feet in elevation, all you would see is dormant deciduous trees and normal leaf litter on the ground. This is a truly exclusive biosphere.
We drove home with great pictures and memories of those crazy views. What a way to finish off a trip!