Mount Mitchell State Park

We spent the whole day! It's on top of the world. We checked out the Mitchell Observatory and took Black Mountains Crest Trail all the way out to Deep Gap. Then of coarse back. The Weather Man said "all clear, no rain". We hit rain twice. It came and went fast and from and to nowhere. We always have our rain gear so no problems. I'm just mentioning so you come prepared or so you pick a better weather man. Mt. Mitchell is great. It has the maps with the peak labels all around. Amazing views! The trees have grown up on one side kinda blocking some views but that's nature. The trees probably weren't thinking of us and our views of hills miles away. While they were weathering high winds, reaching for light. They need to get they're priorities straight. Anyways it's up a pretty steep paved ramp. Not to long but long enough to feel it and get winded. There is the grave of the man the peak is named after at the foot of the Observatory. The trail starts out kinda manicured with steep stone steps down. After about a quarter to half mile it gets a little less manicured. The whole trail looked carpeted green. It was growing all over everything. We saw lots of trees down all laying the same direction from the killer storms of wind that must pelt this monster constantly. There is lots of rock scrambling and it's "HARD" rating on Alltrails is accurate. That's what we are looking for. If you aren't then I suggest you don't go past Big Tom Peak. It's the best views from all the peaks IMO besides Mitchell. The trail only gets harder and more technical after. After Big Tom there are ropes with knots in two separate slippery rock slopes. They actually aren't way more steep than other parts of the trail but they are wet. So you can go down with out the ropes if you want to. You may go down faster than expected!!! Disclaimer: the ropes are wet. It did rain earlier that day but I think it's just a wet area. When you squeeze the rope small amounts of water ring through your fingers. I took my gloves off. It's up to you. The trail is always up or down pretty steep and is covered in needles. It looks like Christmas tree needles everywhere. I've done leave covered but needles can prove a different type of slippery so be careful. On the way back just after Big Tom on the right is a small trail. Looks like an animal trail. It leads to an airplane crash reckage site. It went down in 2014. Sad. We loved this Park and the trail is hard but fun. We recommend you check it out.