Tales From The Wood Booger: Into The Fryingpan & Out Of Spring At Mt. Pisgah On The BRP

Saturday, June 11, 2022

Into The Fryingpan & Out Of Spring At Mt. Pisgah On The BRP

The signs of Summer are all around. Whether it's the unofficial start with Memorial Day Weekend or the end of the school year or the 90° temperatures Summer seemed in full swing. However, Spring (meteorological) still had two days and I decided to enjoy them in the shadow of Mount Pisgah.

I was staying at the campground that is named for said mountain. It's located off the Blue Ridge Parkway (BRP), at mile marker 408. Oh, it is directly across the Parkway from the Pisgah Inn, which I stayed at in October of 2016. I will say here to Richard Balsam is my favorite stretch of the BRP.

After a stop at REI for the Anniversary Sale, it was up the BPR from Asheville. There are a lot of great overlooks and tunnels on the way up.

As for the campground, it was the highest dedicated one that I had stayed at coming in just shy of 5,000 feet (4,980 feet). The sites here are small and I know that is a turn-off to some, but I liked it. I was reminded of my site at Blockstand Creek at Rocky Fork State Park. Also, like at Rocky Fork, there are problems with bears. While I didn't have anything stolen the park ranger said they recently had to trap one. Because of the bears, the sites have a bear box, which I like better than hanging. Oh, the car was five feet away, so food storage wasn't an issue.

I did find a nice place to view the sunset at the Mount Pisgah Trailhead. Besides a view of the mountain, there is an overlook for Buck Springs. It was here in 2016 and I hiked the Mount Pisgah Trail to the observation deck below the summit communication tower and back to the Pisgah Inn. However, this time I had another tower in mind...the old fire lookout on Fryingpan Mountain.

I was originally going to hike from the campground, but I had to cut that short and instead drove the BRP to Fryingpan Gap to hike the final 0.7 miles to the fire tower. I passed the trail I would come in on as this part of the trail is the old tower road. It was long before the 70-foot tower came into view.

Sitting at 5,340 feet atop Fryingpan Mountain the tower was built in 1941. The tower had a 12-by-12-foot live in cabin which was used by the USFS until the early 1990s when it was retired. It would be refurbished in 2010, but because of people camping in the tower the cabin is now closed. So, you can only reach the highest stairs platform, about 60 feet up, which means there were still wonderful views.'

Once down I decided to run the drone around the tower. It gave me 360-degree views and great photos of the tower. After I got the drone down it was time for the trip back. I have to say it was a great trip and Mount Pisgah Campground is one of the best I have stayed out...I loved it!