| Grandfather Mountain, August, 2003 Trip Report |
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| Our August campout was in Grandfather Mountain, NC. Janet, Julie and I left after work on Friday, and promptly got stuck in traffic for over 20 minutes while the rain poured down. Naturally, we got there too late to join the club for dinner (at the Sagebrush in Boone), so we hurried to set up the camper before dark. By the time we were done, the club was arriving back at the campground. They set up the campfire while we headed out to the local McD's for a quick supper. On the way back we picked up marshmallows and chocolate-covered graham crackers for S'mores. |
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| After a stormy night--more pouring rain--we woke up early. We joined our parents at their camper for breakfast. Our grandparents drove up to join us for the day. We went to an art festival (where Janet stopped to smell the flowers), The Great Train Robbery (an emporium-type store) and a Christmas shop. We then went to Grandfather Mountain. Admission was $12 per person, and the parents and grandparents decided to stay at the bottom while we went up. We walked across the Mile-High Swinging Bridge, and did some low-level rock climbing past that. Julie went to the peak, but Janet and I turned back. We met John and Barbara as we crossed back over the bridge. |
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| After visiting the rather sorry gift shop, we drove back down the mountain to take an extremely fast tour of the rest of its offerings. We saw bears, bear cubs, bald eagles, golden eagles and otters. We skipped the nature museum because of time, but we hear it was very good (and had a better gift shop). We took a drive-by photo of Split Rock, then headed out to pick up the parents and grandparents. After lunch, we went to the Old Hampton Store, and then gem mining. Julie got a huge bucket of dirt--it took all of us to sift through it! Gem mining is messy! After the mining, we returned to the campers and cleaned our treasures. We found rose quartz, smoky quartz, white topaz, emeralds, garnets, sapphires, citrine, aquamarines and more. I'm keeping mine in a glass coke bottle. |
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| Supper with the club was soup and sandwiches--it was great! We had our meeting, then sat around the campfire again (more S'mores!). Sunday morning we packed up the camper, had devotions, and then said our goodbyes until next month. Summary: The campground is in a great location, but we may not go back. They scattered us randomly throughout the campground, even though we had requested to be together or at least close. The parents were down by the stream, and we were on top of the hill! I'm not sure we all got the same rate, either. The building we used was nice but a bit small. The bath houses were just OK--so dark in there I couldn't tell if it was clean! --Amy |