So we started off the day at Grandfather Mountain. There was a ‘Highland Festival’ taking place at the base of the mountain but we did not go – too many things awaited us at the summit and along the road that would bring us there. Our first stop was ‘split rock’ and ‘sphinx rock’, which were just at the roadside. The kids had a good time scrambling on the rocks. We walked up to the animal habitat center where we saw a white-tailed deer, a cougar, several bears, a Bald Eagle, a Golden Eagle and some otters. The bears were quite funny, coming by name when one of the keepers called to them “Lucy, Carolina!” – like a couple of dogs running to their owner for a treat. After this we stopped for lunch and got some delicious fudge. After lunch, we hopped in the car and continued on our ascent. Our next stop was the summit – we wanted to get there quickly as we were concerned about a storm that was rolling in and the possible subsequent closure of the swinging bridge. The road to the top was steep and windy. At the top, we crossed the footbridge and the kids had fun scrambling on the rocks. The bridge is one mile above sea level and offered beautiful views of the surrounding countryside. Unfortunately it was overcast and a mist hung in the mountains – still it was fun to walk over the bridge and look out over the mountains. We left Grandfather Mountain and headed towards a mountain of another kind – Gem Mountain – where we purchased a bucket for the kids to sift through in search of things like rubies, emeralds and sapphires. We did manage to find a few rubies and several other precious and semi-precious stones. We are having one ‘cut’ (part of the purchase deal) – a garnet I think. Forgot to take a picture of the stone before we left it to be cut. I wonder what it will look like when we get it back at the end of the summer.
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