The great part about living in Charlotte is proximity. 2 hours to the mountains, 3 hours to the beach, 2 hours to the next closest city (if you happen to find boredom in Charlotte). We had some longer trips coming up in the summer, so of course it would be appropriate to take a quick day trip up into the Blue Ridge - for research purposes and practice, of course.

We took 321 from Gastonia up to Blowing Rock, where we got on the Blue Ridge Parkway and drove down to Grandfather Mountain. After learning of the temp up at the summit (11 degrees), we decided to take some pics at one of the lookouts from the BRP and headed south to Linville Falls. Much better, considering it was around 55 degrees once we got out of the truck.
Original Plan (omitted the Linn Cove VC, but drove the Viaduct)










If we didn't have the baby with us, we would have hiked to the other viewpoints. From here, we drove a few miles further into the forest for Wiseman's View. Well worth the drive (wife wasn't too pleased with the bumpy ride and having to hold our daughter's head still, but she'll tell you it was worth it)