Mt. Pisgah Hike & NC Arboretum

Today I wanted to do a challenging eight mile hike in the Black Mountains but the weather forecast threatened thunderstorms so I opted instead for a short hike off the Blue Ridge Parkway, near the NC Arboretum and Bent Creek Recreation Area. If the weather remained nice I would have plenty of hiking options.

Mt. Pisgah is located about 25 miles south of Asheville. It's a short hike that starts at 5000 feet and climbs another 700 to a panoramic view of Asheville and the surrounding area.

View from the Mt. Pisgah Trailhead

The trail starts out nearly level with a clear path, but bare, broken tree limbs are strewn about, pointing in all directions as if a hurricane passed through. This makes me happy though because the sun shines through and breaks the rhythm of the typically monotonous Blue Ridge Parkway forest trail.

Trail Wreckage

Up there is where I'm headed

Shortly the trail starts to ascend and continues to do so until the top. Large rocks form much of the trail but they are easy to navigate, leaving no turned ankles in their wake.

From the trail

At the top of Mt. Pisgah is an observation deck from which you can see a nearly unobstructed view of the area. Unfortunately a TV tower blocks much of the view of Asheville (well I guess this is fortunate for TV addicts like myself).

TV Tower on Mt. Pisgah

Observation Deck on Mt. Pisgah

From the O-deck

From the O-deck

Near the trail head starts another trail that leads to the Mt. Pisgah picnic area and then onto Frying Pan Lookout Tower, which was a 6 mile round trip. Since the weather was beautiful, I decided to hike this trail as well. Mostly, I had to pee and there was a restroom at the picnic area. Of course the bathroom was closed, and couldn't find the trail that led to the lookout tower either, so I turned around and went back to the car where Katie was panting in wait.

At the other end of the parking lot, though, I noticed another trail called Shut-In Trail. Supposedly this trail was constructed by George Vanderbilt to connect his hunting lodge with the Biltmore house, all the way back in Asheville. I had never heard of this trail before -- did it really extend 25+ miles? The beginning of the trail was nicely upward but dark clouds were looming and since I had no idea how long the trail really was I turned around after a quarter mile.

View from Shut-In Trail

Before leaving the parking lot I spotted a couple more trails, both appropriate for Katie so she didn't have to stay in the truck. One was a grass trail that meandered along the ridge of the mountain and concluded above one of the tunnels on the parkway.

Finally she lets me out!

Over the tunnel and through the woods...

The other trail was a mile-long hike to the Mt. Pisgah Inn, a mountain top hotel and restaurant. After about a half mile through we turned around after taking the wrong fork. I was getting tired and wanted to get off the mountain before the thunderstorms arrived.

Katie, taking it all in

At the bottom of the mountain the the sun was still shining, and what I really wanted was to find Lake Powhatan in the Bent Creek Experimental Forest where I could relax and read. However that part of Bent Creek costs $5 cash and I didn't have any. So, on to the Arboretum.

The Arboretum is a 434 acre public garden, one of those places you're supposed to see when you visit Asheville. I have no interest in flowers or gardens unless they produce herbs for lamb or some other tasty meal, but the Arboretum has several hiking trails and I thought perhaps those trails might be among some pretty flowers. It may just be the time of year (still April showers...), but I saw few flowers and the hikes were through the woods. The trails were nicely padded with wood chips though and would make excellent running trails (it would be an expensive run though; $8 for parking).

To get our $8 worth, we walked the wooded trails until Katie's pace slowed to a crawl and her tongue dipped near the ground in heavy panting.

We returned to Black Mountain around 3-3:30 just as the storms were rolling in. The Black Mountains where I intended to hike were indeed black (or maybe a dark gray), so I'm glad I chose the other side of the city to wear myself out today.