Day 3 - Mount Mitchell State Park

Ready to start our hike!

View of neighboring mountains from the top of Commissary Trail.

Along the trail we go!

Wild guineas ahead of us on the trail!

Lots of mica on the trail.

Stopped at this stream at the end of the Community Trail to eat our lunch.

Found some comfortable rocks by the stream to sit on for lunch.

Homemade ham and cheese sandwiches.

View from the stream.

After lunch, ready to hike back to the Ranger Station at the start of the trail.

Bear poop on the trail! Clearly the animal is on a fiber-rich diet!!

Ranger Station.

We visited the Mount Mitchell museum. Luckily, these stuffed bears were the only bears we saw!

Ready to hike to the very top!

Made it!!

Views from the very top of Mount Mitchell from each compass direction.

Floor of the observation deck showing where Mount Mitchell is located in NC.

Selfie from the top of Mount Mitchell.

Notice our coats are off as we got sweaty hiking up the very steep trail to the summit!

Noticing Commissary Ridge on the right where we hiked earlier in the day.

Road to Mount Mitchell as viewed from the summit.

Parking lot at the bottom of the summit...a long way back to the car, but at least it's downhill on the trail!

Enjoying the scenery.

This trail started near the bottom of the Summit Trail.

Neat rock formation.

Green plant that looked like little starbursts.

Pretty flowers at the exit of the Balsam Nature Trail.

Back in the car headed back to Alpine Village from Mount Mitchell...we stopped at this scenic overlook.

Spectacular view from the overlook.