Craggy Pinnacle

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
9/21/2025	0.8 miles	52 minutes	151'	1.4 mph	278.5 miles

Parking: 

• Craggy Pinnacle parking area, Blue Ridge Parkway

Map:

• Gai GPS app

Directions:

• Follow the trail to the summit. Return the same way.

Tonight, we went up to Craggy Gardens. It's been over a year since we've been there, since it's been closed due to Helene. It was great to be back. We were hoping to catch a sunset. As we headed up the clouds thickened, and eventually we were driving in the clouds, which isn't uncommon up there. It was really sad to see the damage caused by Helene, on the drive up. Some sides of mountains were fine, some had massive tree damage. And some areas along the road had tons of damaged trees. Trees have thinned in sections, so you see individual standing trees where you used to see forest. There is some fall color up there already. A few trees have completely changed color!

We stopped briefly at the Craggy Gardens Visitor Center, where cars were lined up to see the sunset, but alas, there was zero view. We continued on to the Craggy Pinnacle parking lot and hiked up anyways. The Carolina Mountain Club has already been out here to do trail maintenance, before the parkway re-opened. How cool is that! It is so appreciated. 

It was misty, and there were many people and dogs on the trail. We saw familiar trees which felt like seeing old friends you haven't seen in a while. Only one tree we recognized had damage. We got to the top and hung out for a while. The clouds/mist rolled by. We enjoyed ourselves despite zero view. On the way home, the clouds/mist were even heavier, so we had to drive back slowly.

One of the cool trees, now damaged.