Most people don't know the Legend or how unique the Blowing Rock actually is -My husband and I visited when we first moved to the area. the view are quite spectacular.
from what we understand the Legend come somerhing like this:
The Legend
It is said that a Chickasaw chieftan, afraid of a white man's admiration for his daughter, journeyed far from the plains to bring her to The Blowing Rock and the care of a squaw mother. One day the maiden, daydreaming on the craggy cliff, spied a Cherokee brave wandering in the wilderness far below and playfully shot an arrow in his direction. The flirtation worked because soon he appeared before her wigwam, courted her with songs of his land and they became lovers.
One day a reddening of the sky brought the brave and the maiden to The Blowing Rock. The brave viewed this as a sign of trouble commanding his return to his tribe in the plains. With the maiden's begging and pleading for him not to leave her, the brave, torn by conflict of duty and heart, leaped from The Rock into the wilderness far below. The grief-stricken maiden prayed daily to the Great Spirit until one evening with a reddening sky, a gust of wind blew her lover back onto The Rock and into her arms. From that day a perpetual wind has blown up onto The Rock from the valley below. For people of other days, at least, this was explanation enough for The Blowing Rock's mysterious winds causing even the snow to fall upside down.
How The Blowing Rock Got Its Name...
The Blowing Rock is an immense cliff 4,000 feet above sea level, (see photo of my crazy husband on the Rock) overhanging Johns River Gorge 3,000 feet below. The phenomenon is so called because the rocky walls of the gorge form a flume through which the northwest wind sweeps with such force that it returns light objects cast over the void.
The current of air flowing upward from The Rock prompted the Ripley's "Believe-It-Or-Not" cartoon about "the only place in the world where snow falls upside down." Visible from "The Rock" down the gorge to the southwest are Hawksbill Mountain and Table Rock. To the west are Grandfather Mountain (the highest peak in the Blue Ridge chain) and Mount Mitchell (the highest peak east of the Rockies).
Here is a shot we took of the view.
On the ledge of the blowing Rock
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