Coming from South Carolina's Sassafras Mountain a few hours earlier we drove up to the south side of Asheville, NC and stopped for lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Shortly afterward we picked up the Blue Ridge Parkway and headed, once again, into the clouds.

Mount Mitchell Park entrance.

The higher we drove towards Mount Mitchell, the thicker the clouds got. Memories of the grey nothingness we met atop Mount Greylock flooded back. The state park was easy to find and we drove to the summit parking lot.

A short walk up a wide trail took us to Dr. Mitchell's final resting place the highest point east of the Mississippi. There were quite a few other tourists milling around on this Saturday. After some pictures, and a fruitless search for the USGS marker (the Holmes guides says "south of the summit tower", but we weren't at all sure which direction south was) we retreated from the wind and strolled through the museum and gift shop. There we purchased two warming cups of hot apple cider.

We then drove s short distance down from the summit and claimed one of the four remaining tent campsites in the park. After setting up our tent we hiked along the Old Mitchell Trail back to the summit. The Old Mitchell Trail runs from the park office 2 miles to the summit and intersects the summit trail at the "You are now 1 1/4 miles above sea level" sign.

At the summit.

We walked around the gift shop again and bought a 1/2 gallon jug of cherry flavored apple cider (the only flavor left). Then we returned to the summit (still cloudy) and found the USGS marker (actually a North Carolina department of transportation marker). For those interested, the marker is on the rock at the spot where everyone stands to take pictures of the summit sign and tower.

Not sure what we were looking at.

We walked back to our campsite with our jug of cider, telling people we passed it was moonshine. Between a campfire, warm dinner and cider heated on my camp stove, we kept warm until retiring to the tent.

Scenery along the summit trail.

Before nightfall, the campground host came around and informed us that the clouds usually clear off after midnight. I did wake up around 1am and, definitely not to my surprise, the sky was still cloudy. In the morning the campsite host claimed the summit cleared off around 5am, but I'm not sure I believe him. Probably this is something he claims to everyone with the misfortune to visit on a cloudy weekend.

My father and the summit lookout tower.

Sleeping in our tent that night, we were likely the highest people east of the Mississippi for most of the night.

After the cool night ended, we had a quick breakfast and packed up, rolling out of the park a bit after the gates opened at 8am. As we drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway, we had spots of clear weather, however the overlooks were always socked in with clouds, except for a few on the southeast side of the ridge, which looked directly into the morning sun, ruining any great pictures. A mostly uneventful ride home, except that we finally saw blue skies when we reached lower elevations in Tennessee and Kentucky.

View from the Blue Ridge Parkway.