After visiting a bunch of towns and cities, it was good to be back in the great outdoors.

Let’s see. Chimney Rock, at $15 a person versus $94 each to see Biltmore - hmmm, I guess Chimney Rock wins. While we waited for the day to warm up, we drove down to Saluda, another QT south of Asheville, not far from Chimney Rock State Park.

Saluda’s claim to fame is that the Norfolk Southern Railroad operates a three mile stretch from Melrose to Saluda that is the steepest standard-gauge railroad grade in the US. It gains 606 feet in elevation over that three miles.

It also likes to sell itself as yet another Asheville-lite. For such a small town, Saluda has a large percentage of B’n’Bs and airb’n’bs. There is a craft brewery, a combination antique store/art gallery, a genuine old fashioned general store, and some terrific mom’n’pop restaurants.

This info plaque gives a good synopsis of Saluda’s history.

Saluda really does milk that railroad thing.

A cool Porsche parked in downtown Saluda.

It ain’t a QT without a craft brewery.

It says grocery store, but it is really a genuine old-fashioned general store.

This store was a combination antique store, art gallery, and gift shop.

The Purple Onion restaurant.

Some public outdoor seating. It may not be comfortable, but it is quaint looking.

Businesses are pretty informal in Saluda.

Being as tiny as Saluda is with a population of 3,000 it didn’t take long to check it out. This was good because we were gunnin’ for Chimney Rock and by 11 am the day was finally heating up.

At $30 for both of us to drive into Chimney Rock State Park, I was expecting quite a bit. It turned out to be way more than my expectation. In fact, the whole elevator thing up to the Chimney Rock monolith was only the beginning. The trails were tough involving some serious climbing. They probably could have used about 20 elevators, but the views were breathtaking, the rock formations were fabulous, and the forest was lovely.

The Chimney Rock monolith.

The glitzy tunnel that’s leads to the elevator.

The last staircase to the monolith.

The view of a reservoir from the monolith. Interestingly, the top of the monolith isn’t even close to being the highest spot in the Park.

This shows that we have been experiencing a cold-snap. Nights have bottomed out around 20º, but the afternoons have reached the upper 40s. Normal temps are more like 35º at night and 60º during the day.

The 440’ Hickory Nut Waterfalls was more like 880’ feet. Although the first half of the falls is straight down, it continues to tumble another 400+ feet after that. Being November, the falls were only a trickle. I am sure that in the Spring and early Summer the falls are much more impressive. All-in-all, the entire 1000 acre State Park was worth the hefty entrance fee.

Hickory Nut Waterfalls.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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