June 2006

Grandfather Mountain Area of the Linville River Railway

On Sunday, a large group left the convention hotel in Banner Elk to do some right-of-way hiking. One of our walks was along the Linville River right-of-way, between Linville Gap and Foscoe. We started our hike just east of Jestes Siding right on the Avery/Watauga county line. Walking east on the old line about a half mile brought us to a large cleared curve with a spectacular view of the valley below with Grandfather Mountain across and above the valley. The clearing was very open and sunny and chock full of these flowers. It wasn't a long hike in this area, but it was a section we had never been on before.