Anybody else ever find themselves saying “Screw this heat wave, I’m gonna just get HIGH”? We did this week. We’d had enough. 100-degree heat indexes every day. Seems like we’re in Florida instead of NC major thunderstorms every afternoon. We’d had enough! It was time to get HIGH!… Not that kind of high, but the high in elevation! So, we set out for the highest peak east of the Mississippi in our Travato van, looking for cooler weather, beautiful views and epic campsites.
Just 2 hours from our home, after traveling country roads, back roads, Interstate 40 and then forest roads, we found it! We camped in our Travato camper van in a PISGAH National Forest campsite. We cooked 2 awesome Blackstone Griddle recipes this week (Chicken Fried Rice and Banana Blueberry Pancakes). We hiked around Mount Mitchell on the Summit Trail and hiked down to to take in Crabtree Falls on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
We learned that NC has a lot to offer someone who is willing to explore… you have to get off the beaten paths and be willing to crawl slowly up rough forest roads. You have to be willing to hike down rocky cliffs but at the end there’s a huge beautiful waterfall. You have to pack warmer clothes even when it’s 95 at home because it’s in the clouds and it gets colder much faster. You have to slow down and relax. But if you do all those things then there’s beauty and wonder to be found in the NC mountains, particularly the Pisgah National Forest area.
Here’s the video:
VAN TREKKING lifestyle 