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| Rice Pinnacle Road will take you to this Trailhead located at Bent Creek Forest, NC, just south of Asheville. |
The Bent Creek area below Asheville, NC, is a
fantastic place to spend the day hiking through a
mixed deciduous forest, filled with crazy amounts
of biodiversity.
fantastic place to spend the day hiking through a
mixed deciduous forest, filled with crazy amounts
of biodiversity.
Directions: From Asheville take Brevard Rd south to Bent Creek Ranch Road.
You will soon turn left onto Wesley Branch Road. Soon you will see Rice Pinnacle Road
on the right, which you will take all the way to the parking lot.
You will soon turn left onto Wesley Branch Road. Soon you will see Rice Pinnacle Road
on the right, which you will take all the way to the parking lot.
Click here to see a map of the Bent Creek area.
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| The first wildflower I saw was this giant plant called Joe Pye Weed. |
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| Flowers of Joe Pye Weed Information |
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| The short trail from the trailhead leads to this wider gravel trail, which is where we walked, today. This is Rice Pinnacle Road/Trail at Bent Creek. Other maps call this 491. Click here for the map. Zoom in on the top trail. Touch or click the trail or road to get a name. |
This 15 foot tall plant was a surprise to see!!
Click any photo to enlarge it and get a better look.
Click any photo to enlarge it and get a better look.
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| One of these plants was bent so that we could see the flowers. The flower of the giant plant. If you know the name of this plant, please notify me (go to Profile). |
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| Bush Clover |
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| Close-up of Bush Clover flowers. |
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| There's a neat looking house hidden behind the shrubs. Along the way are side trails that you can take. |
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| The gorgeous flowers of the Flowering Spurge. |
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| Close-up of Flowering Spurge. Information |
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| Saw several of these Yellow Fringed Orchids. |
Yellow Fringed Orchids;
Autumn's yellow laced lanterns
lighting-up the trail.
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| Looks like a Bracken Fern to me. Information |
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| The trail was shaded by the canopy pretty much the entire way. |
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| Downy Rattlesnake Plantain, a wild orchid! |
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| A close-up of the orchid flowers. Information |
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| Loomis' Mountain Mint Looks like some of the leaves have been spray painted white. Very neat! |
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| The shade of the canopy makes this a comfortable walk. |
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| Creeping Bush Clover |
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| Marilyn exploring the terrain. |
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| This one's called Seedbox...close-up, below. |
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| Seedbox flower Information |
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| Indian Tobacco Information |
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| Indian Tobacco flower |
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| The bend in trail 491 (Rice Pinnacle Road). |
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| The leaves and seedpod of one of the most beautiful flowers known, the Pink Lady's Slipper. Click here for information and photos. |
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| It's hard to spot the Cranefly Orchids in this photo, but we saw many sets of these beautiful flowering plants. |
Are these craneflies
Encircling the plant stem?
Gorgeous fall orchids!
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| Part of one of the beautiful wild Cranefly Orchids!! |
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| Small Headed Blazing Star (Liatris microcephala) |
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| These strange devices were part of a research project on Acorn Production. |
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| Click here to view a great video of Acorns to Oaks. |
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| On the bottom right of this photo you can barely see the flowers of Curtiss' Milkworts. |
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| Curtiss' Milkwort flowers. (Polygala curtissii) |
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| Individual flower of Curtiss' Milkwort. |
From here you can continue to walk further, in which case you'd
connect up with Ledford Branch Road (see map), but, at this point
we turned around and walked back, slowly, continuing our
observations, in case we missed some plants, animals, or fungi.
There are so many different trails in this area!
Click here for information.
You must come and walk them.
I'm definitely coming back.
