Mt. Gibbes, Mt. Hallback, Mt. Mitchell, & Mt. Craig, NC (6-4-14)
Read MoreMount Mitchell Summit Trail (6,650')
Joining the throngs of drive-up summit-ers...
state parkpisgah national forestBlack MountainssprucefirElisha MitchellSouth Beyond 6000Mountains to Sea TrailCamp Alicehigh pointBlue Ridge ParkwaywildflowerDeep Gap
Deep Gap Trail (6,350')
The saddest part of the death of this forest is that it will never return. Other species will quickly take over now that the firs are gone and change this ecosystem forever. There's only around half of the spruce-fir environment left compared to only a hundred years ago and all we have left is all we ever will have. The time for protection and preservation of these habitats has never been more critical than it is now, before it's too late...
Mount Craig Summit (6,648')
There was a small hippie convention going on at the summit so I had to bide my time for any photographs. I therefore wandered off to the north end of the summit where there were some nice, albeit limited, views of the Black Mountain Range to the north. From right to left are: Balsam Cone (6,596'), Potato Hill (6,440'), Cattail Peak (6,584'), and Celo Knob (6,327')...
Mount Craig Summit (6,648')
Looking back on today's four-some of Southern Sixer's from the top of Mount Craig with Mount Mitchell (6,684') looming large in the fore, Mount Gibbes (6,571') jutting up next to the towers of Clingmans Peak, and the tiny pyramid of Mount Hallback (6,391') looking rather diminutive in between...