Mount Mitchell State Park

Mount Mitchell is the highest point east of the Mississippi River (6,684 feet above sea level). Mount Mitchell is a part of the Black Mountain Range that features six mountains that are among the top ten tallest mountains in the eastern part of the United States (much of the Black Mountain Range can be seen from the Blue Ridge Parkway). Mount Mitchell is named after Elisha Mitchell, who was a professor at the University of North Carolina and studied the height of the Black Mountain Range (and Mount Mitchell in particular) using barometer readings. Mitchell was one of the first scientists to find that Mt. Mitchell is the tallest mountain in North Carolina and not Grandfather Mountain. In the 1850s, Mitchell argued with Thomas Clingman as to which mountain in North Carolina was the tallest mountain, and in his 60s, Mitchell hiked Mt. Mitchell again to prove his findings, which ended with him tragically falling off a cliff and drowning near a waterfall. Mitchell’s body is interned at the summit of Mt. Mitchell.

Today, Mount Mitchell State Park remains iconic in North Carolina, and the state even fought to prevent Mount Mitchell from becoming a national park in the 1970s. Mount Mitchell is the oldest state park in North Carolina, tracing its state park status to 1915. Interestingly, the State Park is only accessible from the Blue Ridge Parkway, making it unique from that perspective as well. The Park has an observation deck at the summit of the Mountain that you can drive most of the way up to and park in an upper parking lot, with the rest of the trip requiring a hike up a paved trail that can be fairly steep. The views are stunning, and who doesn’t like to say they have been to the top of the tallest mountain east of the Mississippi River?

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Resources

Mount Mitchell State Park Website

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