There was a retaining wall made of wire keeping rocks from sliding.

The trip started off with a stop on the side of the road.

A pipe went under the road and down on one side...

through the pipe under the road to the other side where my friend is taking pics...

turns out he found a frozen waterfall...

after that we got back in the car and went on a ways, but the road was closed and we stopped again...

here's the way past the blockades we couldn't pass...

as i looked back to my car, i noticed something behind it in the distance...

Grandfather Mountain

the first overlook where you can stop your car and get out...

see that little hotel at the top right?

let's take a closer look...

below the hotel is a lake and more houses...

i turned around, walked a bit, and found some deer...

soon i was spotted and they ran off...

we went on our way as well...

we enjoyed the scenery from the top of a big rock, then finally made our way to the visitors center where they help animals...

otters may be the cutest animals ever...

there's a reason that they call it the Blue Ridge Parkway...

this was the next place to pull over after the center

i played in the snow...

i spotted a kangaroo...

but he was timid and hopped away...

the park was going to close soon. we didn't have time to chase him, as we wanted to get to the top before we had to leave...

elevation : one mile

this is known as the 'mile high swinging bridge'. i'm petrified of heights, but we had to cross it...

the image on the left is from the half way point...

we acknowledged the warning, but we had come too far to turn back. so we carefully pressed on to the peak...

(below) the view back to the place we parked and that evil bridge we had to cross...

someone has parked beside me...

so we packed up and we left Grandfather Mountain.

we stopped in Boone because we noticed the old water wheel had broken due to the weight of ice...

we pulled over twice more to capture the sunset...