Tag: North Carolina

Grandmother Mountain: The Blue Ridge’s Bouldering Paradise

The weekend was coming and I was looking for a good place to do some bouldering. After asking around, Grandmother Mountain was the name that came up the most in conversations. As I searched for directions, my climbing shoes winked at me from across the room. It was bound to be a great adventure. Like …

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Grandfather Mountain

Grandfather Mountain Grandfather Mountain stretches across North Carolina’s Avery, Caldwell, and Watauga counties in Grandfather Mountain State Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Appalachians. Calloway Peak (5,964 ft.) is the highest of the mountain’s four peaks, with the others being Attic Window Peak (5,949 ft.), MacRae Peak (5,844 ft.), and Linville Peak (5,295 ft.). Visitors can enjoy spectacular panoramic …

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Standing Indian Mountain’s Monster is No More

The mountains hold so much wonder. I feel a billowing sense of wonder whenever I stand on a giant rock which was forced up by energy deep within the Earth to soar above the crust many millennia ago. A mountain top is a place to look around and gain a deeper understanding of the fascinating …

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Clingman’s Dome

Clingman’s Dome Clingman’s Dome has an enigmatic background, the Cherokees believed that Clingman’s Dome, or Kuwa’hi, which translates to “mulberry place,” was home to White Bear, the great chief of bears. The mountain is a part of the Appalachian Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains, which have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and …

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Steep ≠ High Elevation in the Uwharrie Mountains

When one thinks of North Carolina and the mountains, one’s mind is usually drawn to the western part of the state, with the soaring peaks of Grandfather Mountain, Chimney Rock, or Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in the East. But 500 million years ago, another range of mountains formed along the coast, what is now …

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Crowders Mountain: The Antidote to Urban Living

Increasingly, it seems, people are losing control of their own attention and by extension, of their own minds. Mechanized notifications are able to seamlessly capture any given individual’s attention multiple times throughout the day, resulting in so many breaks in that steady state of focused attention that people are forgetting how to judge whether something …

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