Devil's Courthouse

On Monday, July 30, we went to Devil’s Courthouse. This is a rock formation off the Blue Ridge Parkway. We took Heidi with us and our friends also took their dog. We figured it was time to include the puppies in our outing.

The drive to this particular spot was just as beautiful as every other drive we’ve taken. North Carolina is a beautiful state. We are in constant awe!

We parked the cars in the lot and took the pups for the half-mile hike up to the lookout. This was a fairly steep walk, which we tried to capture in these pictures. Photos just never do it justice though. This is Larry & Barb in the early part of the trail, where it was still paved.

The last part of the trail was gravel. This is Julian and Larry with Panda in the lead. She’s a 9-year-old Boxer who loves to hike.

When we got to the top, we shot this photo back down to the parking lot. Our cars are the two farthest to the left side. Can you make them out? It’s a LONG way down there!
We were told that on a clear day you can see three or four states from this vantage point. Well, it wasn’t a clear day. The fog kept coming and going the whole time we were there. It was so pretty up there, in spite of the fog. Here’s proof that Heidi and Donna made it up to the top, too. Honestly, Heidi is a huge wimp when it comes to walking, so we were pleasantly surprised that she made it up and back without a problem. She actually seemed to enjoy it. After we got back down to the parking lot, the fog had rolled in even worse at the top. We were sorry we hadn’t taken a picture of it when we arrived, it was much clearer then. So we kept snapping pics until the fog wasn’t so bad anymore. Here’s Devil’s Courthouse from the parking lot. You can make out some other hikers up at the top.

From there we drove the Parkway a mile or two until we came to a picnic area. We had packed hot dogs and all the trimmings for a nice picnic lunch. Larry did a great job cooking the “dogs” while Barb managed to spoil the (other) dogs with treats. We had a really good time even with the fog coming and going.

Then it was time to head home and just put our feet up. It was quite a hike and we were all a bit tired. But it was definitely another wonderful day in North Carolina.