Rough Ridge Hike | Boone, North Carolina

 

 

Rough Ridge is a hike that I actually found while browsing through Instagram. Its a really popular spot close to Appalachian State in Boone, North Carolina and its located right off the Blue Ridge Parkway. Finding the actual trailhead was a little illusive- as there are a lot of different places off the BRP called “ Rough Ridge”. But after browsing through enough websites, I was finally able to find the trail.

I timed our hike right before sunset. On the way we stopped for some awesome personal pizzas and IPA to wash it down at Lowes Foods in Boone. Seriously – if I can just have a foodie moment and brag about those deli gourmet pizzas from Lowes.. they’re 2 for $10 and super filling and delicious. I had the Greek and my friend had the veggie. They smelled so good in the box, but I held off on eating mine until I got to a nice overlook to park at along the Blue Ridge Parkway. If I’m going to do it, I might as well do it right. It was devine.

Rough Ridge is only about 20 minutes from where we were staying in Banner Elk, so it was a short drive. The hike is about 1.5 miles round trip- with multiple lookouts along the way. At one of the rocky outcroppings we ran into a family hiking for the afternoon. They had 5 adorable little dogs hiking along with them and Migo loved saying hi. They were all so cute and the scenery was so great, we ended up doing a mini impromptu family session. While Migo made new friends, we got to talking to everyone and found out that these two young beautiful girls are pretty much Instagram famous. As in 200k+ followers famous. They’re both very active equestrians and have built a name in their sport and in photography. As we got to talking, they mentioned that they will be photographing their very first wedding this weekend. Did I mention that they are 15 and 17??? I can’t even imagine how bright their futures are going to be!

Their Instagram accounts are @Simplyyequestrian and @raeganibach . You should totally go follow them.

Maddi, Raegan, and their family ended up hiking back down the mountain while I hiked up. We watched the sun set behind grandfather mountain while the Blue Ridge Mountains glowed all around us. We shared a drink up on Rough Ridge and then headed back down the mountain before it was dark. Definitely going to be returning for more hikes and hopefully even some engagement sessions. This is really the perfect spot for a sunset session.

Thanks so much for reading!

Shelley Hartman, Boone, North Carolina Adventure Wedding Photographers