We drove home yesterday, but went for a little hike and ate lunch before hitting the road.

We drove up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and hiked the Craggy Gardens trail. The Craggy Gardens, according to the signposts, is a heath habitat dominated by Catawba rhododendron (rhododendron catawbiense). The rhododendron wasn’t in bloom, but there were frequent swaths of a very small white groundcover flower.

The trail ends at Craggy Gardens Picnic Area, currently closed. There were some solid patches of dimpled trout lily (erythronium umbilicatum) in this area.

At about 0.2 miles from the trailhead a spur trail leads to some open overlooks.

We stopped for lunch at the Skyland White Duck Taco Shop. The tacos here were almost entirely non-conventional. I had the crispy pork belly and the Thai chicken with a side of green chile black beans. Interestingly, the tacos had solid meats. The pork belly was a rectangular slab, and I think the chicken was an entire tender. They were both good. I expected the green chile black beans to be a chile-bean mixture, but it was basically a black bean puree.

We drove straight home from there!