Plants of the Trail and Highlights of Elkin, NC

I hope you've read my two previous posts

with highlights of my and Judy's hiking

adventure on Stone Mountain, NC's loop trail.

This post will show some interesting plants

we saw and show what we liked about Elkin,

the small town where we stayed.

This is Galax, which was once harvested commercially.
We've seen it in other mountain areas.

This maple leaf was determined to be a little different,
and we loved it.

On the peak of Stone Mountain mosses clung to
the rock under the shade of a bristlecone pine.

I haven't yet identified this dainty, low-growing,
berry-bearing plant.

This fungus reminds me of Indian Pipe, but I
don't know its actual name.

Ground cedar or ground pine is one of my favorite
wild plants.  I don't recall seeing it in this phase of
its cycle.  I'll have to read up on it a bit.

Along the stream and woodland paths was an
abundance of rhododendron.  I would love to see
this when in full bloom.

Now let's head to old downtown Elkin.

On TripAdvisor.com I had found excellent

reviews of this restaurant, so we tried it

for lunch.  

This is the side of the same building. For lunch, Judy
and I both had the Southern BLT, which had bacon,
lettuce, tomato plus pimento cheese.  Yum.  Judy had
a side of broccoli and cheese soup and I had pimento
potato salad.  Yes, pimento again. And double yum.

After a full afternoon of hiking, we returned

to the welcoming arms of a Comfort Inn in

Jonesville, NC, just across the Yadkin River

from Elkin.  By getting a room that faced the

mountains, we were treated to this sunset.

Which soon turned into this sunset.

For dinner, we headed back to 21 and Main,

where we had enjoyed such a good lunch.

We dined in this outside enclosed terrace, with
a cozy heater centrally located.  It was a great
atmosphere and the service was exceptional.

I got steak frites and Judy got a huge pork chop
plus sweet potato puree and brussel sprouts.
It was all great.

We had read that this Comfort Inn would 

pull out all the stops on both service and

decor, and it was true. Here are some of

their festive fall decorations.

After a delicious hot breakfast at the Comfort

Inn, with amazing variety, we took a brief

spin through town before heading for home.

We saw a nice park, some lovely old houses,

and last but not least, this old railroad bridge.

You know I'm a sucker for all things related

to our country's rail heritage.

We would still have one stop on the way home,

a surprise I had saved for Judy.  That will be

in my next blog post, and will wrap up the trip.