View toward Shining Rock and Cold Mountain

Looking North, you can see Tennent Mountain (the foreground). This is the last mountain on along the ridge before you get to the wilderness boundary. Shining Rock Mountain is two mountains back, with this giant quartz outcropping shining like snow and giving the Wilderness Area in which it sits its name. Behind that and to the left sits Cold Mountain, the mountain which inspired a book and now a film by the same name. The hike to Shining Rock and back to the parking area is about 8 miles. You can either cross the ridges using the Art Loeb trail or skirt around them on the Ivestor Gap trail, both seen here!