Day Sixteen | 25th May 2017

Asheville to Balsam, North Carolina.

Distance: 109 miles
Total: 3109
Total states: 12

A morning of wandering and writing (and laundry) was followed by an afternoon of slow, circuitous driving, high in the mountains west of Asheville.

I took what I thought was a minor detour to Rosman first of all, in order to cross (very briefly) the state line into South Carolina. Then back again. The map, however, was deceptive. The route I'd chosen proved to be perhaps the windiest road I have ever driven, up and then up and then up, to over 6,000 feet, the highest part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. This time though I was rewarded with wonderful views, out over the Smoky Mountains, offering a hint of what I'd missed in yesterday's fog.

The scale of the forest, of the mountains, is quite astonishing.