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A number of you asked about Frying Pan Mountain, one of the mountains we hiked this past weekend and mentioned in yesterday’s video. So we did a little research and tried to find out where the name came from. The first piece of information was that the name came from the nearby Fryingpan Gap. Well, that was useful.
Where the gap name came from is even more speculation. You can find stories that a frying pan was tied to a tree in the area to mark a favorite campsite a couple of hundred years ago. Others refer to the shape of a nearby spring. We have heard that it gets its name because the heat can build up on the back side of the mountain in the summer sun, but this blog post proves why that theory is probably false. Those guys were lucky to get there at all since this section of the parkway is usually closed due to snow and ice November through April (and not exactly equipped to hike here in the winter months).
The cool part is that there is a 70 foot (21 meter) fire lookout tower on the 5,340 foot (1,628 meter) mountain. The view from up there is spectacular.
Most famous view from Frying Pan Mountain is Cold Mountain, made famous by a certain novel and movie. Unfortunately for all of the tourists who ask, there is no such town as Cold Mountain, the movie was filmed in Romania and not here, and there are no roads to it – just a very strenuous 10 mile hike to its 6,030 foot (1,838 meter) peak via unmarked trails. The usual answer from a local to the question, “How do I get to Cold Mountain?” is, “You don’t.” It can be done, but a good trail map, a compass, and good trail sense are required. There are numerous lost hiker searches in this area every year.
But, we sure like hiking Frying Pan:
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I bet if any pups could find their way to the top of Cold Mountain, it would be you six!
Kat
What a beautiful place! You all must love hiking there!
Hmm, Cold Mountain sounds like my kind of hike! 😀
Mum says she has skied a hill call Frying Pan, but it was here in Australia. I don’t know why she wanted me to tell you that, as it’s completely irrelevant.
Huffle Mawson
Thanks for all the wonderful info. And such spectacular views!!! Makes us want to move.
Loki and Juno love the name frying pan because that’s how they get their Sunday morning breakfast! So they’d expect a hike on a mountain named frying pan may end up with some blueberry pancakes…
wow! that view is SPECTACULAR! I’m so envious! 😉
One thing the south is famous for is good stories, whether it be dogs, people, mountains, lakes, and names of things are favorites. Something I miss about the south!
Stella’s Mom
Spectacular pictures!!! The best is that last one, of course! Ha roo roo roo!
Play bows,
Zim
That is an incredible view!
Humans have stupid reasons for naming things. We’d call it Long Hike Mountain.
Princess Eva
Great view! I bet the smells are fantastic! Where I live it is very, very flat. I need to go on more long hikes!
great view – we need to start videoing our hikes
we have several searchs in NY and NJ that woodrow has assisted on –
no one told us bullies that we arentsearch dogs and hiking dogs – so we love it
Woodrow Sweetie MJ
Does the herd go up the fire tower with you?? I’m guessing not but I’m curious.
Beautiful views. I can see how hikers would get lost trying to climb Cold Mountain. It’s so densely forested that you’d need a serious sense of direction or a GPS.
We are Siberian Huskies…
We haven’t met a trail we didn’t like!
Even the trail from the chair to the bed is fun!
Happy Thursday!
Hugz&Khysses,
Khyra
PeeEssWoo: Fur some reason, Mom is seeing ice khream in her head after seeing me read Khold Mountain!