376 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
It is the lichens growing on the rocks that give so 
sombre an appearance to the top of the Grandfather, 
those big, black lichens with loose and curled-up 
edges. Grandfather's black, rocky top is eight miles 
long, and once Mr. Calloway and our friend the post- 
master — he who brought us our mail, walking four 
miles every day for the pleasure of doing a kindness — 
and the men of the camping party blazed out a rude 
trail so that we could all take that wonderful knife- 
edge walk up in the sky over the peaks of the Grand- 
father; Indian ladders — that is, a tall tree trunk 
from which the branches have been lopped, leaving 
protruding ends for steps — helping us up otherwise 
insurmountable cliffs. It was the great event of the 
season, a very wonderful walk, and one seldom taken 
by anybody. 
The Yonahlossee Road ought to be followed early 
in the summer. For then the meadowy tops of the 
long spurs are like noble parks created for man's 
pleasure. The Rhododendron Catawbiense lies massed 
about in effective groups and covered with rosy 
bloom, beyond which one looks out over a wide 
landscape of mountains and clouds. From these 
open, flower-decked spaces the road passes into the 
shadowy forest, to emerge upon a bushy slope where 
blazing reaches of flame-colored azaleas astound 
your senses. There are other flowers along the way, 
but you scarcely see them, intoxicated as you are 
with the glory of the rhododendrons, and after them 
the azaleas, for these marvelous growths almost 
never blossom within sight of each other. You would 
