The Blowing Rock

Field trip numero dos! On Wednesday, we ventured out for our second field trip, this time to the Blowing Rock, just a few miles from campus. Blowing Rock is what it sounds like (a rock), but it's not just any rock. This one is estimated to be over a billion years old - a billion - that's a long time and really quite hard to fathom. Put a bunch of young kids on top of it and the dichotomy is striking. The landscape was striking, too.

The first view you see in the park.

My class on the Blowing Rock! 

The Blowing Rock, up close and personal. 

Lots of pretty little living things.

Yours truly, hanging out in the very appropriately named Blue Ridge.

Well, no one launched themselves off of the Blowing Rock (in spite of their inclination to do so thanks to a powerful updraft that blows leaves tossed over the side back up to you; it's actually really cool, but I'm fairly certain it isn't powerful enough to return the weight of a human safely to the top, although this Native American legend begs to differ), I saw plenty of beautiful sights and got my lichen fix for the day, and we had a very zen moment as a class on top of the observation tower, just thinking about where we were, what we were seeing, and how we fit into all of it. What more could you ask for in a field trip with a group of preteens? Not a thing.