Photo of the Week: Chimney Rock State Park

There are few better places to soak up the raw beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains than from the top of the Chimney at Chimney Rock State Park. And what better time than Flag Day to discover a piece of untarnished American landscape?

Flag Day was officially recognized in a proclamation by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916. However it wasn’t until Aug. 3, 1949, when President Harry Truman signed an Act of Congress, that National Flag Day was born. From that point forward, June 14, the anniversary of the day in 1777 that Congress chose the Stars and Stripes as the U.S. flag, became an annual celebration of national pride.

There’s nothing quite like the sight of a sweeping American vista to get you feeling patriotic. Soaring at an elevation of 2,280 feet above Hickory Nut Gorge, the Chimney at Chimney Rock State Park offers a magnificent 75-mile panorama of verdant North Carolina forests, mountains and Lake Lure. You can find further inspiration by hiking one of Chimney Rock’s five trails to the Opera Box, Exclamation Point or Hickory Nut Falls.

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Photo courtesy of Chimney Rock State Park.