View: ♦ ♦ / 5
Trails: Rose Creek Trail
Picnic Tables: None
I was hoping to find some Playboy Bunnies up here, but no such luck. What I did find at Heffner Gap Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway was a mediocre view plagued by trees and other brush that block the view of the lower half of most of the mountains. If nothing is done about this soon, this will be just another scenic view that was lost to nature.
The vista is quite wide here, but the scene is a bit boring. Straight on views of the mountains without being able to see into the valleys running between them leaves the scene flat. If you visit the Bear Den Overlook just a few miles to the north, you will understand what I am talking about, as that is a fantastic overlook with a tremendous depth to it.
If you look directly across the Blue Ridge Parkway, you will find a trailhead for the Rose Creek Trail, a 1.4-mile one-way trail that is part of the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail. The Historic Trail follows the route of Virginia and North Carolina militiamen who, in late September and early October of 1780, crossed over the Blue Ridge Mountains into eastern North Carolina and marched towards South Carolina in search of British Major Patrick Ferguson and his army. Just weeks earlier, Ferguson had threatened to come to their part of the county and wipe out anyone who didn’t pledge allegiance to England. The “Overmountain Men” met up with another contingent of militia from present day Elkin, North Carolina, so not all of the men were from “over the mountain.” The inevitable meeting between the two sides took place at Kings Mountain in South Carolina on October 7, 1780. The militia wiped out Ferguson’s army, killing him and taking over 500 prisoners.
Rose Creek Trail at the Hefner Gap Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway is part of the Overmountain Victory National Historic Trail
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Last updated on October 12, 2024