at Chimney Rock
Chimney Rock,
North Carolina
May 9, 2010
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at Chimney Rock |
| Chimney Rock is a village in Rutherford County, North Carolina. The village takes its name from a large granite outcropping located on a summit above the village itself in Chimney Rock State Park. The village has a total area of 2.8 square miles, all of it land. The town shares a border with the town of Lake Lure. | |
| The GPS in the truck showed how curvy the roads were while driving to Chimney Park. Once inside Chimney Rock Park, the roads were just as curvy. | |
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The two RV Gypsies reached The Chimney by riding the elevator up a 26-story shaft blasted through solid granite. The cool 198-foot tunnel to the elevator stays a comfortable 55-65 degrees year-round. The elevator goes to the top - up 26 stories in 30 seconds. The elevator operator gives a brief introduction to the Park, the gift shop, and the snack bar! |
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Below: The two RV Gypsies exited the elevator, walked through the gift shop, and past the snack bar to look down at a view into the parking lot. Note: When the two RV Gypsies returned here in 2018, they discovered that this upper parking lot was closed because the area seen below had caved in. In 2018, shuttle busses took everyone from a lower parking lot to this area. |
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Below:
Lee Duquette checked out the scenery and Lake Lure from the lookout
at Chimney Rock. |
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Below: Then
the two RV Gypsies walked up the stairs to The Chimney. |
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Below: The Chimney |
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| The two RV Gypsies climbed the stairs to the top of this towering 315-foot monolith located on the very edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains high above beautiful Hickory Nut Gorge. The Chimney is at a soaring elevation of 2,280 feet and has 75-mile views. It is 44 stairs up to the rock, and 44 stairs back down. |
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Below: Karen
Duquette at the top of the stairs to The Chimney and Lee Duquette ready
to climb up the stairs. |
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Below: The
two RV Gypsies at the top of The Chimney - elevation 2,280 feet |
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Below: View
of "The Outcroppings" as seen from The Chimney |
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| Below: The stairs leading down from the Chimney and 84 stairs leading up to the Opera Box |
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Below: The Opera Box |
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View
of the Opera Box and stairs leading to the Skyline Trail |
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 This
splendid viewpoint was formed when a large block of Henderson Gneiss
(pronounced "nice") separated along its horizontal foliation plane
and fell. Gneiss is the metamorphosed rock that makes up the entire valley
including the massive cliffs in the Park. Originally, the Gneiss solidified
from a molten magma to form a medium-grained rock. The "layering"
or "banding" found here and the large white "augen"
(grains of potassium feldspar) occurred in the rock much later during mountain
building geologic periods when the rocks experienced elevated temperatures
and pressures causing the Gneiss to be altered (metamorphosed). |
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term augen is the German word for eye and is used in geology to describe
eye- or elliptical-shaped minerals in a rock mass. In the Henderson Gneiss,
the augen are composed of microcline. This augen texture is one of the most
characteristic features of the Henderson Gneiss which distinguishes it from
other rocks that have a similar mineralogical makeup. Some of the augen
are quite large and have a shiny surface called a cleavage plane (a plane
along which crystals break in accordance with their atomic structure). |
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| Karen Duquette is covered by a rock overhang with a narrow horizontal opening that presents panoramic scenes of sky, water and trees while the wind and the birds provide the perfect sound track. | |
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| Below: The views of Hickory Nut Gorge, The Chimney, the Outcroppings, and Lake Lure from the Opera Box. |
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Below: Stairs
leading up to the Skyline trail. |
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Below: Devil's Head |
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| At
the start of the Skyline trail just above the Chimney, there is a menacing
rock face peering out over the Gorge. It's the Devil's Head!
A long time ago a huge sheet of rock slid down the mountainside and broke
into many pieces, one of which came to rest on this ledge. The facial features
of the boulder are due to differential weathering of Gneiss. More resistant
parts of the rock form the eyebrow, nose, chin and ear, while softer layers
have eroded out, shaping the eye and the mouth. |
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Beautiful
trees, butterflies and flowers on the trail |
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Below: Part
of the trail that is not so beautiful - narrow pathways between the numerous
sets of stairs. |
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| Below: This point along the Skyline trail is the highest point in Chimney Rock at an elevation of 2,480 feet! It exceeds Chimney Rock's elevation by 200 feet. | |
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| Below: Rainbow Falls can barely be seen in the middle of this photo. It is a 150 foot waterfall in the Western part of North Carolina - Jackson County. Two people fell to their deaths in 2003 from the top of Rainbow Falls. The trail to and from Rainbow Falls can be tricky. The two RV Gypsies did not go to Rainbow Falls. |
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| Below: The rock at Inspiration Point is very uneven. Many people think it is because of water erosion, but in reality, it is due to rock erosion. This particular print looks like a dinosaur foot to the two RV Gypsies. | |
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Below: Time for the two RV Gypsies to go back down the stairs. They counted 355 stairs down. The stairs were NOT all in a row because there were stepping stones and spurts of a dirt trail in between the sets of stairs. That means they climbed 710 stairs today, PLUS the 88 stairs to and from The Chimney. |
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| Below: The long truck of the two
RV Gypsies, often extends into the road when parked. It can not be helped. |
View of The Chimney from the lower parking lot |
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 The
painted door of the Ladies Room at the upper level gift shop. All walls were painted in both the Ladies restroom and the Men's restroom Amazing!. |
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Below: All
the walls, doors, and the ceiling inside the Ladies Room were also painted |
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And
the same goes for the Men's Room |
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The two RV
Gypsies in North Carolina You may visit any of these 6 web pages in any order you wish. The page you are on is grayed out and cannot be chosen from here. |
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Dupont State Forest in Cedar Mountain - Hooker Falls |
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Dupont State Forest
in Cedar Mountain - Triple Falls |
Dupont State Forest in Cedar Mountain -High Falls and covered bridge |
Chimney
Rock at Chimney Rock Village (this
page) |
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 After you have viewed all 6 of the above North Carolina photos, please continue
on to South Carolina |
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| 1. Valley Park
Resort in Travelers Rest, South Carolina 2. Downtown Greenville and some History of the area 3. The Liberty Bridge at Falls Park, Greenville, South Carolina |
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The two RV Gypsies took family members here to Chimney Rock in 2018 and they also hiked to Hickory Nut Falls. Although most of the scenery remained the same, there were some differences, including a brief peek inside the cave. 
