Mile High Campground, near Blue Ridge Pkwy, NC

The start of BIA407 – unsuitable for RVs!

You’ve got to love this little vehicle we are traveling in! We climbed out of Maggie Valley on Hwy19 headed for a little campground claiming some of the best views in the area. After a short stretch on the BRP (Blue Ridge Parkway) we exited as directed and stopped a few minutes looking up the steep narrow path which advertised itself on our van’s and our iPhone’s GPS as BIA rte 407, the last leg of our journey (BIA = Bureau of Indian Affairs). We took the plunge and started climbing up this graveled, muddy switchback. I was worried we would bottom out on some of the tanks under our long wheelbase van on some of the ‘moguls’ or slide on some of the muddy patches rounding some of the hairpins. Luckily we didn’t hear any scrapes (drowned out by the noise coming from the passenger seat?) and none of the minor items flying around the inside of the van and in the cupboards suffered any damage. As we pulled up the final grade, happy to see the campground sign, we were cheered on by a group of local bikers who said: “Never seen a vehicle like that come up the back road, why didn’t you take the paved road?”

Up in the clouds

The campsite is beautiful, the view is pure white as we are in the clouds with a storm approaching, our campfire was put out by the rain drifting in but our spirits are dry. I told the campsite host, “We’re staying ’til we see the view”. “Don’t worry,” he said, “your site is free for the next week or two.”

We’ve a working internet thanks to our antenna booster and a few flaky TV channels so we might just stay and wait for the view . . . . . . which came very early the next morning.

Taken at 2am by moonlight

Next Morning when the sun came up