Day 59-61, April 30–May 2: MILEPOST 290 – BLOWING ROCK, NC
We headed back into Virginia briefly to connect with the Blue Ridge Parkway at Milepost 200, (Fancy Gap) and continued southbound on the Parkway back into North Carolina. This is another beautiful, sunny warm day on a very scenic road. We stopped at Milepost 240 and had a nice lunch at Bluff Restaurant in Doughton Park.
Driving down the Blue Ridge Parkway will make you feel like you are in God's country. If you are lucky enough you might even get to see Jesus. We did!.....in the back of a pick-up.
After 5.25 hours and 160 miles we arrived at Milepost 260 where we will be staying at Raccoon Holler Camp in Glendale Springs, NC for three nights.
RACCOON HOLLER CAMP
Even though we will be spending time in the Blowing Rock area, we could not find any decent RV parks close by. The best one we could fine was about 30 miles away in Glendale Springs. But it turned out that Raccoon Holler Camp was a disappointment. First impressions of the place were excellent. The grounds were nicely manicured with open lawns surround by evergreen trees. But we found all the best and better sites filled with permanent trailers that were empty because they were ‘summer homes’. The overnighters were put in the last row, way in the back, and far from the comfort station which was a dump. At least we had trees around our site and lots of shade.
Please see our RV PARK REVIEW BLOG under NORTH CAROLINA to see a review and more pictures of this RV Park. http://charleston-rv-park-review.blogspot.com/BLOWING ROCK, NC
The town of Blowing Rock is a small village with a quaint downtown with cafes and shops. We had a nice lunch, sitting on the outdoor patio. There were dark stormy clouds all day, but it never rained and it stayed warm despite the clouds. We checked out the shops and bought some nice items for our garden.
Then we visited the rock formation that the town was named for. There was a nice view of the valley and mountains and you can see that it was raining up in the mountains.
Blowing Rock is a limestone formation on a cliff 4,000 feet above sea level that over hangs Johns River Gorge 3,000 feet below. 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. It is said that this is the only place in the world where snow falls upside down due to the current of air flowing upward.
There is also a Chickasaw Indian legend where the chief’s daughter fell in love with a Cherokee brave that was wandering the wilderness below the ‘blowing rock’. They had a love affair, but he had to return home and so he leaped from The Rock into the wilderness far below. The grief-stricken maiden prayed daily to the Great Spirit for his return. One evening a gust of wind blew her lover back onto The Rock and into her arms.
PARKWAY CRAFT CENTER, Milepost 290
On our last day in this area we got back on the Parkway and visited the Parkway Craft Center. There are several ‘craft centers’ along the Blue Ridge Parkway that feature art work and crafts from local artists that are part of the ‘Southern Highland Craft Guild’. This includes the states that the Parkway goes through and the states that surround those states. There are some beautiful artwork and crafts in these centers. This Craft Center was housed in the Moses H. Cone Estate. This morning was very foggy (and muggy). We had to actually crawl along the Parkway because the fog was so dense. When we reached the Craft Center it was covered in a blanket of fog which made this beautiful house look eerie.
On the way to Grandfather Mountain we crossed the Linn Cove Viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
GRANDFATHER MOUNTAIN, Milepost 300
Further down the Parkway we stopped and visited Grandfather Mountain. Grandfather Mountain is one of the most biologically diverse mountains in the world, home to 73 rare or endangered species. It is recognized by the U.N. as an International Biosphere Reserve, a place where man and nature live in harmony. Before driving up the mountain we stopped at the Nature Museum and Mildred’s Grill where we had lunch (fast food). We checked out the gift store and the small museum. In back of the museum was a small animal habitat with bears, bald and golden eagles, cougar, deer and otters. For a $1 fee, you can feed the bears food pellets that are provided by a young girl who is standing by to answer any questions. The bears will stand up for you to throw the pellets to them and they will catch them in mid air. There were 4 black bears, but only two of them were begging for food.
By the time we finished lunch and continued up the mountain most of the fog had cleared, but it was still very overcast with dark clouds. It was a nice, scenic drive.
At the end of the road is the visitor center which was being remodeled and under construction and the Mile High Swinging Bridge. It was quite windy there at the top and despite this bridge being strongly secured, it did sway a bit while walking across it.
At one point on the ascent we came upon this very sharp curve with a sign that said Forrest Gump's Curve. Apparently the scene where Gump is jogging on a mountain road was done on this curve.
On the way back to the RV park we came across some very unusual cattle grazing in the meadow along the road. Actually they were not unusual. You just don't see Ayreshire Cattle grazing in a field that often.
Day 62-64, May 3–May 5: MILEPOST 382.6 - ASHEVILLE, NC
We are back on the Parkway to our next destination. After two days of dark, stormy clouds the rains finally come. It was pouring when we started out and when the rains stopped, we were driving through thick fog. Fog so think we forced to travel about 20 MPH.
The fog cleared a bit and suddenly we came to a road barrier where the Parkway was closed. There was no warning and we had no idea how much of the Parkway was closed.
In December last year there was a very bad ice storm in this part of the country. Many trees along the Parkway were damaged or destroyed when tons of branches just snapped off of the trees. You can see a lot of branches on the roadside and many trees with torn branches still hanging. The Parkway had been cleared of all of the broken branches on the Parkway except for about 10 miles so they just put the barrier down and closed off this part. Every several miles along the Parkway you can see barrier fences on the sides of the road to be used to close the road in events like this.
We turned around and took the closest exit and drove along the parallel country roads until we saw where the Parkway entrance was open and got back on and continued on our way.
After 4.5 hours and 129 miles we arrived at Campfire Lodgings in Asheville, North Carolina.
CAMPFIRE LODGINGS
This campground is in the hills just outside of the city. You have to drive up a steep mountain road to get to the top were the campground is. The view is spectacular from this hill top. You can sit on a bench and watch the beautiful sun set or watch the fog blanket the valley in the morning. This is a small campground, but a very nice one with manicured sites, a great view and very quiet and peaceful.
Please see our RV PARK REVIEW BLOG under NORTH CAROLINA to see a review and more pictures of this RV Park. http://charleston-rv-park-review.blogspot.com/BILTMORE ESTATE
Asheville is the home of the Vanderbilt’s’ Biltmore Estate. The admission price is very expensive; $50 each! But we’ve always wanted to explore this place so we paid the fee.
The Biltmore is on 8,000 acres of grounds. Originally the property was much larger, but the Vanderbilt family donated several thousand acres to the National Forest system.
On the property is an area called Antler Hill Village where there are shops, restaurants and a winery. We did some wine tasting in the winery and sampled dressings, dips and spreads (yumm). We bought a few bottles of a rose called ‘Thousands Flowers’. And we had a nice, relaxing lunch on the patio at the Arbor Grill.
There is a barn yard with farm animals. A garden that has a conservatory full of beautiful orchids.
A great idea for all those empty wine bottles!
The estate is a 250 room French Renaissance style chateau on 4 floors and a basement was completed in 1895. Three years later George Washington Vanderbilt married and brought his bride Edith Stuyvesant Dresser to the Biltmore. They had one child. Today the great-grand children own and run the place. They also live on the property. When you enter the house you are on your own in exploring the house, but you do have to follow a route with a guidebook describing the rooms and there is an employee at each room to answer questions. A lot of the rooms you can only look in from the doorway, but most main rooms like the living room, and bedrooms, you can walk through part of it. The basement has a two lane bowling ally and an indoor swimming pool and a gym. What is amazing is the ceilings in all of the main rooms are so high, which makes each floor huge. The doors to the house close at 4:30but we didn’t get out of there until 6:00pm. This home is absolutely fascinating and so beautiful. There is a huge bouquet of fresh flowers in almost every room. This made each room so inviting.
Parts of the grounds around the property are landscaped and manicured. There are lakes and ponds. Lots of walking trails and bicycle paths. You could spend a few days here and still not see everything.
The tickets to the Biltmore are good for two days. We spent seven hours on the first day and about four hours on the second day.
CRAFT CENTERS
We visited two more Craft Centers. One was one at the edge of Asheville and the other one was on the Parkway. Both centers had similar crafts and artwork. It is just nice to walk through these places and see the talents of artists and craft persons.
Tomorrow we will head back onto the Parkway to travel the last 86 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway into the Great Smokey Mountain National Park.
Day 65-67, May 6–May 8: MILEPOST 469 - GREAT SMOKEY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, TN
This was an interesting morning getting back onto the Blue Ridge Parkway. We found a shortcut on the map to get us onto the Parkway where we avoided going through town. Well that shortcut took us over a steep gravel mountain road and then when we got over the mountain and onto paved road, we saw the sign pointing to the Blue Ridge Parkway, but our GPS took us onto another road that actually ran parallel to the Parkway and back into town. It was a narrow road and no where to turn around pulling a trailer. Finally we found a wide driveway. When there was no traffic, we backed into the driveway and then drove forward in the right direction. !#!$!! that GPS. That thing has sent us in the wrong direction so many times! This was only the beginning of our bad morning.
The Parkway was closed again at Milepost 410. This closure we knew about and this time there were signs showing us a detour. After 20 miles we got back onto the Parkway and then a few miles further on the Parkway, the traffic was stopped by a road crew. They were chopping down a tree on the side of the roadway and we watched it fall across the road. Then we watched the road crew go at it with their chain saws cutting the tree into chunks.
Why did they cut down that tree? And why did they choose that time to cut it down? We don’t know, except maybe they know we were having a bad morning and they just wanted to make it more interesting to us. After about 45 minutes, we finally continued our drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
We stopped at a view point of Cold Mountain. Did you see the movie? And we stopped at the highest point on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
At Milepost 460 we left the parkway and drove into the town of Cherokee, NC. After 5.5 hours and 129 miles we arrived at Cherokee/Great Smokies KOA.
CHEROKEE/GREAT SMOKIES KOA
This is a nice KOA that is on the edge of the town of Cherokee. The Raven Fork River runs alongside one side of the RV park and you can hear the river raging from some of the sites. On the other side are fishing ponds. Unfortunately they are working on setting up new cabins so there is construction debris in parts of the park. They were not working on anything when we were there, fortunately.
Please see our RV PARK REVIEW BLOG under NORTH CAROLINA to see a review and more pictures of this RV Park. http://charleston-rv-park-review.blogspot.com/CHEROKEE, NC
The town of Cherokee and the area around the town is in the Cherokee Indian Reservation. The Cherokee are the only tribe in the U.S. that have a written language written by the tribe itself. All the street signs and shop names signs are in both English and the Cherokee language. Some of the letters in their language are different shapes then our letters. It is very interesting to see it written.
This is the area that the Cherokee KOA RV park is in.Cherokee is a wealthy town with lots of modern buildings and lots of businesses. One part of the town is very touristy with tacky tourist shops and one place that I am very unhappy about is a pen holding performing bears. It is a horrible habitat for these poor creatures and none of our animal humane laws can touch any business on the reservation. I can only hope that none of the tourists spend money to see these things.
There is a very nice casino in Cherokee. It is run by Harrah’s and there is a high rise hotel next to it. We had a nice lunch there.
We also found some life size, hand painted fiberglass bears around town. We only found three of them to take pictures of (here are two).
BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY
The next day we returned to the Blue Ridge Parkway to drive the last nine miles. The last few miles of the Parkway is actually in the Cherokee Reservation.
We had a great time driving this Parkway. We are proud to have driven all 469 miles of this beautiful scenic road (except for 30 miles of it that were closed). We would like to return again and see this Parkway when all of the Rhododendrons are blooming and again in the fall when it is ablaze in color.
GREAT SMOKEY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, TN
The border of North Carolina and Tennessee is in the middle of this park. We drove the one road that goes through the length of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park and saw the sights on both sides of the road. There is a lot of wildlife and great hiking trails in this park. It is a beautiful drive through the park with lots of great scenery.
At the stateline there was a trailhead to the Appalachan Trail.
There were butterflies everywhere. Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies were all over the roadways inside the national park. Most of them were bright yellow, but a few are the dark color. They were migrating from Central America. We didn't see them on the Parkway, but they were all over the National Park. I think this one was dying, that is why I was able to get a picture of it.We came out on the other side of the park into the town of Gatlinburg, TN. We were looking for a place to have lunch. This town is a real tourist trap. It is so tacky; full of gift shops that sell the same stuff, miniature golf, wax museums, and lots of restaurants (mostly fast food). All the decent restaurants we found were either closed or only open for dinner. We finally found a place where the food was pretty decent. Another town to avoid at the other end of the National Park is Pigeon Forge. This place is even more tacky. Dollywood (Dolly Parton’s theme park) is in this town. And, of course, every tacky, gimmick shop was put up around Dollywood. Yuck! Stay away from these places....unless you like tacky.
We drove back through the Great Smokey Mountain National Park to return to Cherokee. We took a side road and did a loop drive through some very scenic country. We sighted several Eastern Black Bears on this road! They were grazing along side the road and one time we saw a mom and her cub. We also saw several elk, but seeing the bears was very exciting.
Our next destination is to head to the East Coast of South Carolina and Georgia and then head south into Florida.
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