May 4, 2009

Lake Santeetlah and Fontana Dam area

We're back in North Carolina. Right near the place where we were when we last visited this fine state. Several years ago, Sam and I came to hike a section of the Appalachian Trail - the week before Thanksgiving. We planned on going about 30 miles from Winding Stair Gap to the NOC. We never made it that far thanks to inclement weather. We were drenched upon and threatened to be frozen so we left the trail and became car tourists.


Fast forward to these several years later. We plan on doing the same thing. This time picking up where we left off on the trail - at Wayah Gap and this time heading all the way to Fontana Dam. This trip would be a 50 mile hike. We don't make it again - thanks to inclement weather. I know you'll read about this trip in another post. I just wanted to explain why we decided to head for this area again.


We found a beautiful NFS campground on Lake Santeetlah to prepare for our hike and to get caught up on a few things we hadn't had time for. The campground was on beautiful Lake Santeetlah. It comes complete with a few electric sites, all sites with a view of the lake, a few nice primitive cabins to rent and hot showers!











The dogwoods were in their prime!










We paid a visit to the Fontana Dam area to check out places to park our rig while we hiked the Appalachian Trail.




















We couldn't wait to get out on the trail later that week. More on that to come! Notice the bright blue, sunny skies in all these pictures...