Blowing RockAug 9, 2010
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We arrive at Blowing Rock
The visitor center
On the path to the Rock
INFORMATION FROM PAMPHLET: The Blowing Rock is an immense cliff 4000 ft. above sea level, over hanging Johns River Gorge 300 ft. below. The phenomenon is a so called because the rocky walls of the gorge form a flume through which the northwest wind sweeps with such force that it returns light objects cast over the void.
The current of air flowing upward from The Rock prompted the Ripley's "Believe-It-Or-Not" cartoon about "the only place in the world where snow falls upside down." Visible from "The Rock" down the gorge to the southwest are Hawksbill Mountain & Table Rock. To the west are Grandfather Mountain (the highestpeak in the Blue Ridge cahin)& Mount Mitchell (the highest peak east of the Rockies).
THE LEGEND OF THE BLOWING ROCK: It is said that a Chickasaw chieftan, fearful of a white man's admiration for his lovely daughter, journeyed far from the plains to bring her to The Blowing Rock & the care of a squaw mother. One day the maiden, daydreaming on the craggy cliff, spied a Cherokee brave wandering in the wilderness far below & playfully shot an arrow in his direction. The flirtation worked because soon he appeared before her wigwam, courted her with songs of his land & they became lovers, wandering the pathless woodlands & along the crystal streams.
One day a strange reddeing of the sky brought the brave & the maiden to The Blowing Rock. To him it was a sign of trouble commanding his return to his tribe in the plains. With the maiden's entreaties not to leave her, the brave, torn by conflict of duty & heart, leaped from The Rock into the wilderness far below. The grief-stricken maiden prayed daily to the Great Spirit until one evening with a reddening sky, a gust of wind blew her lover back onto The Rock & into her arms. From that day a perpetual wind has blown up onto The Rock from the valley below. For people of other days, at least, this was explanation enough for The Blowing Rock's mysterious winds causing even the snow to fall upside down.
