10 Mile Hike through GrayBeard Trail (North Carolina)

Graybeard Trail (North Carolina)

Due to various things, my husband and I are doing quite a bit of traveling over the next few months.  Before we leave for another trip this weekend, I wanted it to blog about our car buying trip down over Labor Day weekend.

Last week, we drove down to Winston-Salem to look at a new (used) car.  As most people know, my husband is fixing a 1987 944 Porche.  What I don’t post much of, is he also has a collector 1989 BMW 328.  Together with my car, it makes up our three daily drivers.  Both of the 80s vehicles are fun, but when you have two daily drivers that are coming up on 30 years old, things break…a lot.  It’s never anything he can’t handle (he’s rebuilt the transmission, done things to engine…hell if I know), but regardless between the 3 vehicles, there are never 2 continuously reliable cars in the household.

As you can guess, my husband is very much into cars so he knew exactly what he wanted.  Sadly, the closest vehicle was in Winston-Salem so that’s where we went.  We had no issues with Flow BMW, purchased the 2015 228i (manual) and it was shipped back to our house in less than a week.

Honestly, it’s whatever he wanted.  He has supported me for random things and I want to buy and I can only do the same.

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All of that being said, it led to a fun road trip to North Carolina.  Heck, we were almost back in Alabama!

Anyway, while down there we decided to go for a hike on the Graybeard trail.  To be honest, the Graybeard Trail was one of my favorite trails to date.  We got lost a couple of time and went off the beaten path, so it was about 10 miles round trip for us.  We stopped at the falls, as well as the “Walkers Knob,” which I thought was called “Walkers Nook”…ha.

We had never hiked the Blue Ridge Mountains before, but we are hoping to get back there again.

To get to Graybeard Trailhead from the parking lot, you’ll cross a wooden bridge over a creek. The Graybeard Trail starts here. Along the way you’ll see small waterfalls, Graybeard falls.

After that, you’ll begin climbing Graybeard mountain. After about 1.5 miles of hiking Graybeard Trail, it gets steep. When you see the sign of the “Walker Knob Shelter,” take a detour to Walker knob. There and back only adds about 15 minutes but worth the magnificent view.

After you get back on the Graybeard Trail, the Graybeard Mountain Trail Summit is just over a mile of VERY steep climbing. This section of trail is one of the toughest parts of Graybeard Trail.

After a scramble, you’ll make it the summit. At the Summit of Greybeard, an amazing view of Mount Mitchell, a view of the black mountains and Craggie Mountains, and several other 6,000-foot-plus peaks. The summit of Graybeard Mountain is one of the best views in the country.

On the way back down Graybeard Trail, you have two options:

• Take the way you came (this is much easier and what we did)
• Make a long, steep loop by combining the West Ridge Trail to the Big Piney Ridge Trail

Here are a few photos from the Graybeard Trail but if you ever get down to the Asheville area, I recommend it.  It took us about 5.5 hours to do the entire 10 miles.

At the top.  I can truly say the view on Graybeard Trail was one of the best I’ve ever seen. 

I hope one day to go back and hike the Graybeard Trail again.

Other hikes we’ve done:

California:
Hiking the Hollywood Sign (LA)

New York:
Getting Lost at Bear Mountain (Part 2)

New Jersey:
Sunfish Pond
Seeing a Bear at Sunfish Pond
Hiking the Stairway to Heaven
Hiking Hemlock Falls

Questions for you:

What is your favorite type of car?

Where is your favorite hike?