Waynesville, North Carolina’s Cataloochee Valley has become a prime spot for elk viewing since 2011, after an experimental program reintroduced elk to this part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The program was led by the National Park Service, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and a few other partners. Twenty-five radio collared elk were brought in…
From Bat Cave, North Carolina, get yourself a jug of apple cider from a roadside stand and sip it all along NC-9 North and Bat Cave Road. Follow it right into Old Fort. Old Fort is a tiny town of less than 1,000 residents located halfway between Black Mountain and Marion, and halfway between Bat…
One of the first things I noticed in downtown Boone, North Carolina was this mural painted by local artist Peter Grant Catoe. The mural depicts the Tank Man protest on Tiananmen Square back in 1989 when the repressed students and citizens of China rallied for economic reforms and personal freedoms, among other changes. The Chinese…
Grandfather Mountain is among the most rough and rugged mountains in Eastern USA and at 5,946 feet (1,812 m), it has the highest peak on the eastern escarpment of the Blue Ridge Mountains. My song for this entry is a heavy cover of Edvard Grieg’s classic “Hall of the Mountain King” by Apocalyptica: Daniel Boone…
Blowing Rock is a small town in northwestern North Carolina near the Tennessee border known as the “Crown of Blue Ridge” with around 1300 residents in its three square miles. The land that became the town of Blowing Rock first belonged to Cherokee and Catawba tribes, and when white settlers moved in, they used it…
Downtown Hendersonville, North Carolina has a high concentration of things I like; cozy cafes, bookstores, bars/restaurants with literary themes, coffee shops, boutiques filled with crystals and witchy stuff, farmers markets, Art Deco buildings, and museums, all within a handful of city blocks.
Vance was widely praised for being ahead of his time by making huge strides in infrastructure development and socio-political reforms, but he continuously used his political power to fight against civil rights and the abolition of slavery, and his family still owned slaves so I’m not buying it.
In fact, I found it boldly secular of them to have a plaque of the quote “Ignorance is the curse of God; knowledge the wing wherewith we fly…”
“The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to.” ― Carl Sandburg
Tryon is the birthplace of Nina Simone, the “High Priestess of Soul” who had a voice synonymous to both the civil rights movement and simmering heartache.
We share a love for local breweries and craft beer so, just like our trip to Waynesville, checking out the town’s breweries was paramount. On subsequent trip(s), my friends and I stopped in Bryson City to take in some local culture, shop, and relax by the water.
As scandalous as the title of this blog might seem, it actually has nothing to do with cocaine or meth. Black Mountain, aka Dark City, took its name for its location in the Black Mountain range of the Appalachian Blue Ridge Mountains.
Fernweh 