We are extremely fortunate. We do not have to get up early so we didn’t, arising about 9:00 and starting to move away from the coffee pot by 10:00. By about noon, we jumped into Charlotte and took off for the town of Roaring Gap, which, according to the crummy maps we have, is only about 5 miles away. Some 15 miles later, we drove into Roaring Gap, which is a tiny little burg with a small market, a gift store for other people and two golf courses right in the pass through this part of the Blue Ridge.
In Roaring Gap, we spotted a sign showing another way into Stone Mountain SP and took it down a very scenic but quite narrow road with lots of curves and few straight sections. No traffic made it so we could descend from Roaring Gap at about 10 mph which was great because it is a gorgeous drive. However, I’m glad I did not bring the Invader in this way because it probably would have made some poo come out.
We re-entered the park and drove to the visitor center to scope out the exhibits. We met the neat lady who works there, Denise, who told us about the area & allowed us to access the center’s back deck where we finally were able to see a pretty big chunk of Stone Mountain albeit from the side and from a distance. She did reveal, however, that there was a great spot to see the mountain, right up close, and to visit a pioneer homestead and we could drive right into a parking lot at the spot. She was absolutely correct. If you ever come here, make sure you go see the Hutchison Homestead because the view of the mountain from here is truly impressive and the homestead is pretty neat, too.
From this vantage point, the entire width and the 600 foot height of this enormous dome-shaped monolith is plainly visible humbling us mere pipsqueaks. Great spot for photos and we took a few while hiking around the homestead area.
We departed the Homestead and took one more drive through the park road. There are flowers and buds popping out that were not here two days ago and it was sort of like driving on a road we had not traversed previously. This place is gorgeous and at this time of year remarkably uninhabited. If I lived around here I would probably visit all the time.