The Blue Ridge Parkway to Mount Mitchell

Mount Mitchell — highest peak east of the Mississippi, 6,684 feet — sits 35 miles from Asheville on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The speed limit is 45 mph, which feels arbitrary until a valley opens below you in stacked blue-green ridgelines and you realize the limit is the park insisting you see what you're driving through.

Turnoff at Milepost 355. The spur road climbs through spruce-fir forest that belongs to Canada — balsam fir, Fraser fir, air twenty degrees cooler than Asheville, smell of Christmas in June. The observation deck on clear mornings shows 85 miles in every direction. The summit often sits in cloud. When it does, the fog is so dense that trees appear and disappear like unfinished thoughts, and the only sound is wind in fir needles and winter wren song so complex it sounds like the forest showing off.

The Parkway closes in sections during winter weather — check conditions. Bring layers; the summit can be 30 degrees colder than town. Stop at the Craggy Gardens picnic area on the way back. The view from there might actually be better than the summit, and you won't share it with a parking lot.