Geocaching and the Fall Leaves on the Blue Ridge Parkway

sumajhuarmi points out the cache

sumajhuarmi and I set out early in the morning on our 2-hour drive from Greensboro, NC to the high country and the fall colors. We drove up to North Wilkesboro where we took a back road up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I think next week will be peak color for the trees in this area. Nonetheless, we saw some brilliant color and beautiful views along the parkway. Our first stop was to find Southern Sun (GC4FV83), a cache just off the parkway. We turned in a small

The narrows

access road that curved sharply and became a one-lane road traveling away from the parkway. This was a nice cache, even with the difficulty we found in getting the cache down. It was suspended up in the air by fishing line that had gotten hung up. With the help of some old branches I was able to bat it down. No damage to the cache. Unfortunately there was no way to get the thing back up so I left it suspended but hanging out of view behind a small tree.

We headed north along the parkway admiring the beauty all about us. The next cache was just off

the highway in a small community. I apologize but I've forgotten the name of the town. What stood out was their motorcycle motel, catering to bikers and the little think that said it was a jail and wedding chapel. Jailbreak (GC37JGV) was a nice cache but the jail/wedding chapel wasn't much to behold. Hey, who can complain on a beautiful, cloudless day like this!

Doughton Park, thanks to Photomat28

Back to the parkway and headed north to Only the Narrow Shall Pass/Echo Cache (GC46CKF). It was a simple cache. The joy of it was the narrows you had to pass to get there. We drive a Ford Focus Hatchback so getting through the underpass was easy for us. Many wouldn't make it through.

As we traveled north to Sparta we came through the Doughton Park area. What beauty! We made Sparta our lunch stop before heading north and then turning south on highway 221.

Virginia Creeper mural

We pushed on towards Jefferson, NC. Our goal was to get the cache called Virginia Creeper (GCK89Z). While I looked for the cache sumajhuarmi took a photo of the wall mural of this famous train from days gone past. Then she joined me in our failed attempt to find this micro.

West Jefferson is a nice little town! We headed out along the river, coming to an area called Fleetwood. I looked for a cache nearby with no measure of success. This was one of the most beautiful valleys I've been in. The view up and down the river bottom was gorgeous. We even found a picked over pumpkin patch along the way.

So many caches to find, so little time! We had a great time on the parkway and in the area of West Jefferson. We can't wait for next fall to visit more of these caches.

Appreciate to Photomat28 for assistance with one photo. For rights see
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en