Unlike Mount Washington in New Hampshire, you can visit Mount Mitchell with easy, safe access from the Blue Ridge Parkway. Located in upper Western North Carolina, Mount Mitchell is 6,645 feet above sea level, the highest peak in the United States east of the Mississippi River . . . making it higher than Mount Washington.

A large stone-faced restaurant with excellent food is available about two miles from the peak along with the availability of snacks at the summit, that is part of a building that houses a museum and gift shop (see above) .

While the park is open all year long, the restaurant closes in October and reopens around late April. The Parkway can be closed at any time due to ice and snow during the winter months.

The above photo was taken on July, 2004, when the outside temperature was a warm 69 degrees. Click on the picture above to be taken to the Mount Mitchell official Web site run by the state of North Carolina.

Mount Mitchell is part of the Black Mountains of the Appalachian Mountain Chain. If you go south from Mount Mitchell on the Parkway, you'll head around the southern tip of Asheville and then westward towards Brevard and Waynesville. There you will soon come to the next set of mountains called the Pisgah Mountains. It is here that the Parkway actual runs across the mountain peaks reaching its highest point at about 6,300 feet. From that point on the Parkway looking north, one can see Cold Mountain.