A Day of Exploring Breaks Interstate Park

We awoke to a foggy morning up here on the mountain, a good excuse for a lazy few hours of drinking tea and reading my novel while Dan slept late.

After a big breakfast, we headed out hiking.  By noon it was already getting quite  hot, so we kept it fairly short.  We started out on Grassy Overlook Trail which indeed took us to a viewpoint where we could see the road into the park.  Given this location, the hiking trails were rocky, with lots of ups and downs.

 Continuing on the Laurel Branch Trail which took us to Laurel Lake, we traveled along a narrow trail with dense rhododendrons and mountain laurels on either side .  (It must be beautiful in the last spring.)  

We covered only about 2 1/2 miles, but that was enough on a warm day (one of the warmest of the trip).  Back to our site for a relaxing afternoon, enjoying the scenery out back of the camper and the shade.

The sites have been filling up as the afternoon goes on.  Not only is this weekend Labor Day but also here at Breaks it's the weekend of their big Gospel Music Festival. Three full days of gospel.  The campground is supposed to be totally booked along with the overflow area. I think it's a good thing that we are heading out tomorrow.