Linville Gorge Elopement at Linville Falls and The Chimney's

Linville Gorge is one of my favorite locations in Western North Carolina to venture out into nature. The way the light hits the east and west walls. The ruggedness that is beautiful in its own way. The feeling of being in the middle of nowhere.

Kaley and Daniel live in South Florida, but contacted me about coming to Asheville and Western North Carolina for an elopement, but was more geared towards them and their new family. Just because you want to have an adventure elopement, doesn’t mean you have to have the officiant and a full blown ceremony.

Instead you can put on your dress and suit, your hiking boots, a backpack, and set out into nature to create one of a kind imagery. All you have to have is a mindset of adventure, and Linville Gorge will welcome you with open arms

We started off having to hike into Linville Falls, due to the Blue Ridge Parkway being closed. We bushwhacked our way down the Linville River, until we found a path that would get us to the a lesser known area that I like to spend my personal time at. After some family photos, we jumped into our cars and headed over to the East Wall of the Gorge.

The gorge is formed by the Jonas Ridge on the east and Linville Mountain on the west and is bisected by the Linville River which drops 2,000 feet into the valleys below. The terrain is steep and rugged with numerous rock formations. It is covered by dense hardwood/pine forest.

We ended the session in an area called “The Chimneys” due to its outcrops, chimney-like formations.
NCPedia outlines their formation: “The dramatically rugged scenery is due to the resistant Precambrian granitic quartzites that were solidified more than a billion years ago from molten rock. Considered to be the deepest chasm in the eastern United States, Linville Gorge’s terrain was largely unsuitable for logging, so that extensive tracts of virgin timber have survived.”