As Memorial Day signals the beginning of the annual vacation season, North Carolina’s tourism communities are happy to note that the soaring gasoline prices of the summer of ‘08 have settled back down to reasonable. More families should be “getting away from it all” this season, seeking the comfort of natural beauty and feeling close to the land to leave behind for a little while the stresses of normal life in uncertain times.

The mountainous western region of the state is among the most popular destinations for out-of-state visitors, and not all of them are among the millions who populate the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, hike the highland portions of the Appalachian Trail, or cruise along the lush peaks along the Blue Ridge Parkway. There are many rural and somewhat city-fied attractions in western NC to tempt the family vacation planner.

WLOS Channel 13 in lovely Asheville offers a total of five (5) mapped day-trips in the western counties that look to be great fun to the inveterate sight-seer. There are viewable and printable maps, photos from each trip, lists of attractions, activities and goodies to keep an eye out for along the way. The drives are loops and do not take more than a couple of hours if driven straight through, though they can easily last all day at a leisurely pace with some stops planned-in. There are also hints for making the trip more pleasant, and even some detail about where to pay special attention to the speed limits.

Most of these day-trips meander through wilderness, occasional towns, and rural byways that, depending on when you visit, offer all sorts of agricultural goodies. There are farms where your family can pick your own fresh produce, fruit and berries straight from the fields, and others that maintain convenient off-road market stands for what’s fresh. Some offer delicious mountain delicacies such as sourwood honey, apple and cherry ciders, fruit and pumpkin butters, exotic jams and compotes, and often there will be a fine display of regional crafts as well. Bird and bat houses make of gourds, various styles of hand-painted decorative and/or musical gourds, yard and garden ornaments and scarecrows, even textile offerings destined to become heirlooms.

There are National Forest and state park campgrounds along most of the trip routes, natural waterfalls and swimming holes, fine whitewater rafting adventures, a few good eateries and some popular developed attractions listed. Here are some of the listed “Tips” for different day-trips, offered to ensure you get the most out of your adventure…

• Trip 2 – Southern Rim: If you are looking for a little day hike, right before coming to Caesars Head is the trail head for Raven Cliff Falls, a spectacular 420 foot waterfall. The hike is moderate and is 2 miles to the observation platform or 4 miles to the base of the falls via a suspension bridge.

• Trip 3 – Hickory Nut Gorge: If you are in no hurry to get out of the area, there is a wide assortment of activities to do. Chimney Rock Park offers hiking trails with spectacular views, waterfalls, and unique rock formations while Lake Lure has a beach front, boat tours, and a wide assortment of spas and vacation rentals. Chimney Rock Village is also the home to several souvenir shops and restaurants.

• Trip 4 – Forest Heritage Scenic Byway: Pisgah National Forest is full of attractions that the entire family can enjoy. Some of the more popular attractions and picnic areas are:
- Sycamore Flats Picnic Area
- Looking Glass Falls
- Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education
- Bobby N. Setzer Fish Hatchery
- Coontree Picnic Area
- Davidson River Picnic Area
- Sliding Rock
- Cradle of Forestry
- Moores Cove

• Trip 5 – Cherahala Skyway: Also located off NC 294 is Hiawassee Dam, turn left onto Hiawassee Dam Access Road shortly after passing Field of the Wood. It’s about a 5 mile side trip to the dam. At the dam there is a parking area with restrooms and lots of photo opportunities. The dam itself is 307 feet in height and has been providing power for the TVA since 1940.

Do check out the offerings at WLOS: Cruising and start making your family vacation plans now!

My family watched the movie National Treasure the other night, in preparation for Tuesday’s historic inauguration ceremony swearing in Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States.

The film stars Nicholas Cage as the last in a long family line of treasure hunters seeking the fabled treasure of the Knights Templar-turned-Freemasons, said to have been brought to this country before its beginnings and carefully hidden by the Founding Fathers beneath Trinity Church in New York and found only after following a trail of clues long thought to have been lost to time.

But there are other, less obscure treasures in our nation that we can proudly protect and gratefully enjoy. Some of them are included in Brainz’ scenic post about 16 Incredible North American National Parks, though most of those are out west or up north, including that ‘other’ North American nation, Canada. What was not included is North America’s most beloved, most visited National Park, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park which straddles the North Carolina-Tennessee border and includes some of the tallest peaks and most folded landscapes east of the mighty Mississippi.

Whether your family pitches a tent in one of the well-kept campgrounds, makes use of the rustic shelters along the park’s portion of the Appalachian Trail, stays in luxury hotel accommodations in one of the nearby towns or cities, or rents a cabin or chalet nearby or in the park, there’s plenty to see and do that keeps millions of visitors coming back year after year. 2009 is the year of the park’s 75th Anniversary, so be sure to make your plans well in advance if you’re planning to stay for awhile.

Hike some of the 800 maintained trails, take in some beautiful scenery along the Parkway, play some golf in a landscape that harkens back to the Scottish Highlands where the game first began. Take up mountain biking or engage in a leisurely horseback ride. Attend a festival in a nearby city or get good and wet at an area ski resort, most of which offer summer activities for the whole family. Take a tour of area organic farms or artists’ studios, hit some of the westernmost hotspots on the Mountain Music trail and get to know some of the best fiddlers, banjo pickers and washtub base pluckers anywhere!

You’ll love our beautiful National Treasure nearly as much as we who live here do, I promise. See you there during the Great Smoky Mountains National Park 75th Anniversary year!

Links:

North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Great Smoky Mountains Golf
16 Incredible North American National Parks

Western North Carolina, showplace of the Southern Appalachians, the Great Smoky Mountains and the venerable Black Mountains is a favorite destination for autumn leaf-lookers far and wide. The crisp mountain air – still warm in the day and jacket-cool at night – combines with cobalt skies and flame colored trees to provide a feast for the eyes and seasonal connections between the earth and the soul. Put that together with our many fine restaurants, local festivals and attractions, and fine accommodations, and pretty soon you’re talking about some of the best vacation getaway experiences the world has to offer.

The spectacular colors of autumn arise in hardwood tree leaves, which contain several different color pigments that appear as chlorophyll production shuts down and the tree prepares for winter by pulling the remaining chlorophyll/sugar energy out of the leaves. Brilliant reds, yellows and flame-bright oranges blanket the hills and valleys. Frost, which has already hit the high country, serves to break down the chlorophyll all at once, resulting longer lasting fall foliage. The result is a feast for the eyes and the heart that keeps visitors coming back year after year.

There are well-planned drives, whether you’re traveling by car, motorcycle or bicycle, well-worn hiking trails and fall festivals all over the region. Western North Carolina’s many beautiful resorts and golf courses beckon as well, with rest and recreational exercise in the clear mountain air. Check out some of the links below to find just what you’re looking for, and take some time off from the rat race to enjoy our natural beauty, talented artisans and musicians, fun family festivals and activities, and fine Southern hospitality. You won’t believe what our leaves can do!

Links:

MSNBC: Autumn is in the NC air
Leaf-Lookers Guide: Perfect Drives
High Country Outdoors
GolfNorthCarolina: Best Courses
High Country Reservations
High Country Attractions
Carolina BalloonFest 35
Crossroads Pumpkin Fest
Explore Asheville

Many families who consider North Carolina to be the bet vacation spot in the nation will be thinking right about now, what plans can we make for the kids this summer? A fine answer to this question is to book those kids at one of NC’s great summer camps, to coincide with a full family vacation to any of NC’s wonderful summer festivals and events when the camp period is over!

There are literally hundreds of choices, and camps located in every region of the state offering a regular smorgasbord of activities and skills to learn and adventures to enjoy for kids of all abilities and ages. There are some good web sources listed below this post, where I’ll highlight a few of North Carolina’s best special-purpose camps.

Teen Overnight Surf Camp in Wrightsville Beach. Money Magazine named the southern NC coast as one of the top vacation spots in North America. The week-long overnight camps offer instruction in the art of surfing the Outer Banks’ gentle waves, improving your surfing skills, and exploring different coastal ecosystems while you’re at it! Enrollees stay in air conditioned suites on the campus of UNC-Wilmington and the staff of professional instructors are well qualified to deal with both beginner and intermediate surfers. The $1495/week fee includes lodging on campus, meals, 24-hour adult supervision, shuttle transportation from Wilmington’s airport, equipment, instruction with a 3-1 camper to instructor ratio, daily transportation to the beaches, admission and private tour of the Fort Fisher Aquarium, surfboard factory tour and extras.

If your teen is thinking about a future in computer technology, consider iD Tech Camp, which will introduce him or her to campus life while enjoying one on one instruction in campus computer labs from instructors with a six to one student-instructor ratio. Camps are held Wake Forest University in the Winston-Salem area, and UNC-Chapel Hill in the Raleigh-Durham area. Overnight campers live in university dorms, study in the university’s computer labs and eat in the university dining halls. Instruction in designing computer games, producing digital movies, designing web pages and even programming and robotics is available to broaden your young ITer’s skills.

Talisman Programs offers a “wilderness experiential” exceptional program for exceptional children in coed residential summer programs geared toward campers age 7 to 17 struggling with ADD/ADHD, learning disabilities and Asperger’s Syndrome (high functioning autism). Enrollment is limited so that the staff to camper ratio can encourage meaningful bonds, and there is a high return rate as kids come back year after year to enjoy the adventures. There are programs specially designed for younger children and teens, and include wilderness and water skills, rock climbing and activities designed to encourage group interaction and leadership skills.

Check out the many offerings at these listing sites and see if you can coordinate your summer plans to offer your children a wonderful adventure before reuniting to take in one of the fine family festivals our state offers!

Links:

North Carolina Summer Camps for Boys and Girls
North Carolina Summer Camps: Black Mountain
Mountain Adventure Guides
Special Needs Summer Camps for Kids & Teens
Family Support Network Resource Guide Directory

We once got to take care of a wonderful old Border Collie after his kids went off to college and he got arthritis. He’d been “The World’s Best Frisbee Dog” in his day, and still made a valiant effort to chase down the stray discs our grandchildren would toss in the yard. Unfortunately, our property is seriously up-and-down, and poor old Angus had almost as much trouble with his eyesight as he had with his joints, once rolling halfway down the hill before we could rescue him.

So we quickly learned not to let him outside when playing the first 9 holes of our newly-installed disc golf course, complete with metal poles, bicycle wheels and swing chains as ‘holes’. Now we’ve 20 holes along with plans for another nine on the flatland at the top of the driveway. Hold an informal tourney every January called the “Kudzu Open,” and have a big basket full of pro discs – Archangels and Orcs, putters and drivers, most bright enough in color to be readily found even if they go off the side of the fairway and end up 200 feet down the mountain in a pile of leaves.

The garden sits squarely in the fairway of the 2nd and 4th holes, lose a stroke if you land on anything growing (compost pile doesn’t count). Still have 4 broken windows in the library from when my nephew’s shot went wild and managed to break every single one of the panes one right after the other (he got extra credit). Still, it’s fine exercise, it’s fresh air, and it’s something to do with a disc if your frisbee dog can’t jump anymore.

Our course is a well-kept secret to all but the couple of dozen of us who play it regularly. But there are many other courses in this WNC area that are well done, more coming on line every season. The disc golf craze is picking up some pros, some clubs and associations, and some real tournaments!

Read about disc golf in The popularity of golf’s alter ego keeps spreading, or check out some of the courses, events and reviews in the links below. This is a sport the youngsters can play along with the old guys (and gals), and everybody has fun!

Links:

North Carolina Disc Golf Directory
WNC Disc Golf Club: The Courses
WNC Disc Golf Club: News and Events

16. Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Cultural Feast

The cultural and educational offerings in the State Capital area will appeal to even the most sophisticated of visitors. Excellent history and natural science museums, the North Carolina Symphony, the North Carolina Museum of Art, Duke Gardens at Duke University and more great outings can keep interested visitors busy for weeks!


17. Cape Fear Coast

Historic Wilmington and the Cape Fear Coast islands of Carolina Beach, Kure Beach and Wrightsville Beach offers one of the state’s largest historic districts (230 blocks!), uncrowded beaches, natural preserves and a regular watersports paradise. Take a ride on a riverboat, enjoy some fine dining, go beachcombing at sunset, or just enjoy the fresh sea breeze in this relaxing vacation area!


18. Blackbeard’s Ghost

North Carolina boasts some of the most famous ghosts and hauntings anywhere, but the most famous of them all is the notorious pirate Blackbeard. The historic town of Beaufort on North Carolina’s Crystal Coast offers a Ghost Walk Tour that takes visitors deep into the oldest parts of town to see haunted cemeteries and the famous Hammock House where Blackbeard is reputed to have hanged one of his 14 wives. A hair-raising experience!


19. NC’s Outer Banks

America’s first English settlement, the site of the Wright Brothers’ historic flight at Kitty Hawk, the nation’s first designated National Seashore at Cape Hatteras, and the country’s first outdoor drama. North Carolina’s Outer Banks are a true national treasure. This 130-mile long string of sandy barrier islands host wildlife reserves, quiet beaches, the North Carolina Maritime Museum and an outdoor drama telling the story of the Lost Colony at Roanoke Island.


20 – 25. America’s Finest Lighthouses

Currituck Beach, Bodie Island, Cape Hatteras, Ocracoke Island, Cape Lookout, Oak Island… The most famous, the tallest, the oldest, the most battled-over… North Carolina’s wealth of wonderful lighthouses offer photo opportunities to visitors that are unmatched anywhere in the world! And for a freebie, there’s “Old Baldy” too.

Links with historical, technical and visitors’ information for all NC’s lighthouses can be found at Carolina Lights, so don’t forget to put some or all of these on your travel itinerary!

There you have it. 25 – or, 26 with Old Baldy – great reasons to visit North Carolina this year, covering enough ground to keep you coming back year after year!

Posts to This Series:
Part 1: Reasons 1 – 5
Part 2: Reasons 6 – 10
Part 3: Reasons 11 – 15
Part 4: Reasons 16 – 25

Part 1: Reasons 1 – 5

1. Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The most visited of America’s National Parks, the Great Smoky Mountains hosts more than 9 million people a year on its Blue Ridge Parkway and in its forests, creeks, coves and hollows along 900 miles of trails. Straddling the Tennessee-North Carolina boarder, the park is home to one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is now an International Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage site.


2. Great Smoky Mountains Railroad

The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad between Bryson City and Dillsboro boasts over 53 miles of track, 2 tunnels and 25 bridges. Along with the regular tours there are gourmet dinner train packages on Saturday evenings, and the Mystery Theater Dinner Train on Friday evenings May through September.


3. Cherokee Indian Reservation, Cherokee

If the excitement of Harrah’s Casino and Cherokee Bingo doesn’t get your blood going, check out the native history drama “Unto These Hills” nightly during the summer. There is also the Museum of the Cherokee, Oconaluftee Village, many shops where Cherokee artists and craftmen sell their wares, and native dancing daily both downtown and at the community center on scheduled occasions.


4. Mount Mitchell State Park

Northeast of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park along the beautiful Blue Ridge Parkway visitors encounter the loftiest mountain east of the Mississippi at Mount Mitchell State Park. Boasting some spectacular views, challenging trails for hiking and biking and an alpine environment with plants and animals native to Canada, the ‘J’-shaped ridge of peaks known as the Black Brothers contain six of the ten highest peaks in the eastern U.S.

5. Asheville – America’s Royal Retreat

Home to America’s finest castle at the Biltmore Estate and Gardens while concurrently claiming the distinction of being named America’s Premier New Age Haven, the city of Asheville offers an urban respite for travelers on the Parkway. There are fine restaurants and arcade shopping plazas downtown, art galleries, street performers, brewhouses and a rich live music scene with everything from rock to chamber music, bluegrass to Irish harps and fiddles.


Posts to This Series:
Part 1: Reasons 1 – 5
Part 2: Reasons 6 – 10
Part 3: Reasons 11 – 15
Part 4: Reasons 16 – 25

North Carolina visitors who harbor dreams of living ‘green’ have a host of great opportunities to indulge their interests while enjoying North Carolina’s stunning rural scenery, from mountains to sea. There is much to see, do, learn and enjoy on our active organic farms, many of which offer learning programs, hands-on work programs, pick-your-own fruit and produce opportunities, recreational facilities, lodging and home-grown, home-cooked meals your family will love!

North Carolina’s history as a tobacco growing state could have spelled disaster to farmers and farming communities as that crop has become untenable in the modern marketplace. Yet instead of giving up, the necessary change has engendered a strong commitment to innovative alternatives. Family farmers have invented new ways to keep their farmland productive while at the same time leading the movement toward sustainable practices, new income-producing crops, and clever private-business-government partnerships that add to NC’s important tourism industry.

In the mountainous west, smaller farms on hilly terrain have embraced the “organic revolution” heartily and their offerings for visitors are abundant. In rugged Madison County north of Asheville, there is Eagle Feather Organic Farm, part of the agri-tourism consortium. The farm is home to the North Carolina Ginseng & Goldenseal Company as well as the Southern Appalachian School for Growing Medicinal Plants.

Eagle Feather Farm has been designated a Native Botanical Sanctuary by United Plant Savers, and the NC Department of Agriculture has named it a North Carolina Nursery. Eagle Feather offers books, a video, classes, apprenticeships and tours that demonstrate natural ways of growing beneficial medicinal herbs in their own natural habitats, specializing in woods and forest crops. Owner Robert Eidus leads the tours, workshops and classes. The full schedule is available on the websites, so planning a weekend or a week at one of Madison County’s wonderful Bed and Breakfasts while spending afternoons on the farm will inspire visitors to consider the opportunities presented by caring for the land as it comes naturally, and being rewarded for it with valuable cash crops!

Closer to the resorts and tourist corridors of Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, Boone, Linville, Grandfather Mountain and the Blue Ridge Parkway, there is The Mast Farm Inn Bed and Breakfast in Banner Elk. The Inn is situated on a historic mountain farm and offers guest rooms in the farm house, romantic getaway cottages and rustic cabin for guests. Gourmet dining features organic vegetables and herbs grown by a master gardener for chef Ed Winebarger.

No matter where you’re staying there are many Western North Carolina farms who offer pick-your-own outings in season. Everything from apples, grapes, strawberries, cherries and blueberries to tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, broad beans, sweet corn, eggplant, pumpkins and melons. There are cooperative classes open to the public on canning, pickle-making, drying fruit and vegetables, ice cream making, and how to make prize-winning berry pies. Check out the offerings at Western North Carolina Pick-Your-Own Farms.

Farther east in north-central North Carolina (Franklin County) is another agri-tourism partnership project, Vollmer Farms. This is a unique outreach collaboration between the NCSU College of Design (Department of Landscape Architecture) and the NCSU College of Natural Resources with the Vollmer family farm. The farm offers spring pick-your-own strawberry tours, an educational puppet show and the “Back Forty” play area for school groups, company picnics and other events. There’s a Farm Market & Cafe (opens April 1), and offers apprenticeships and farm hand job opportunities to eager would-be organic farmers.

There are share farms and organic growing operations in almost all of North Carolina’s rural counties, and the number is growing every year. North Carolina’s greatest treasures include natural beauty, fertile soil, abundant forests and friendly, hard-working people who serve this natural heritage with their hearts and hands. Visitors from in and out of state will find fresh air, healthy food and a new appreciation for the land by getting to know our outstanding organic farms and farmers up close!

Links:

North Carolina Ginseng & Goldenseal Company

Southern Appalachian School for Growing Medicinal Plants

The Mast Farm Inn

Western North Carolina Pick-Your-Own Farms

Vollmer Farms

When my daughter was earning her theater technical degree at UNCA, she designed a set for a rather bizarre theatrical production of “Hansel and Gretel at Auschwitz” or something like that, which I never saw and didn’t really want to see. She brought home the ugliest of creepy metal trees made out of welded rebar and promptly installed it out by the footed bathtub from her production of “Hair,” which we now use as the final hole for the top nine disc golf course.

Now, we live in a lovely chestnut cabin on some seriously ‘graded’ acreage next to the Pisgah National Forest. So it’s not hard to imagine that I’ve no particular use for an ugly rebar tree. Yet that was six years ago, and today that ugly metal tree is one of my favorite lawn sculptures. The English ivy she planted around the base has grown up to cover the trunk in variegated dark and light green lushness. Wild pink roses and Japanese honeysuckle now compete for sunlight over the entire top and branches, trailing almost to the ground in places and spectacular in bloom.

So I’m not all that adverse to ideas about how to combine modern, recycled materials and technology with real natural greenery and flowers to make interesting homescapes. The eastern wall of this cabin is half rock, and when we moved in it was covered in ivy. Made for a really pretty picture, but we had to pull it all down when we discovered it was rotting the siding, providing shelter for a variety of stinging pests, and crumbling the rocks.

So it caught my eye when I saw an article about the ‘Vertical Garden’ walls of botanist Patrick Blanc in an interview with him for Ping. I’ve just gotta get me some of those!

The system is sort of hydroponic. A metal framework onto which PVC plastic is attached and covered with felt. Regular tap water mixed with something like Miracle Gro drips from the top of the wall and keeps the felt wet, and all sorts of plants grow just fine without any soil! This keeps the walls light-weight enough to put up almost anywhere, though if they’re indoors they’ll need some grow lights. Blanc describes it for Ping:

The Vertical Garden is composed of three parts: a metal frame, a PVC layer and felt. The metal frame is hung on a wall or can be self-standing. It provides an air layer acting as a very efficient thermic and phonic isolation system. A 1cm thick PVC sheet is then riveted on the metal frame. This layer brings rigidity to the whole structure and makes it waterproof. After that comes a felt layer made of polyamide that is stapled on the PVC. This felt is corrosion-resistant and its high capillarity allows a homogeneous water distribution. The roots are now growing on this felt.

Watering is provided from the top with the tap water being supplemented with nutrients. The process of watering and fertilisation is automated. The whole weight of the ‘Vertical Garden’, including plants and metal frame, is lower than 30 kg per square meter. Thus the Vertical Garden can be implemented on any wall without any size or limitation of height.

I’m thinking that I could maybe use such walls as an alternative to new siding, at least on the front of the cabin where it’s seen on approach. It would certainly keep the south wall much cooler in the summer, and Blanc claims his walls are great insulation against the cold as well. If I were really clever I could also cover the deck rails and foundation and make the cabin practically invisible to the unaided eye!

But alas, I know what would happen. Skinks and copperheads would take over, the whole place would be one giant garden spider web in no time at all, and those house-eating carpenter bees and hornets would immediately move right back in. I just live too far out in the woods for a real vine-covered cottage.

But there’s good news! Blanc’s walls work indoors as well. Check out this photo of “organic wallpaper.” A wall like this is way beyond Feng Shui at bringing nature into a living space without bothering with all those philodendrons and spider plants and ferns I always forget to water.

I’m definitely going to get my sister the plant physiologist interested in one of these walls for the inside of her new log home in Lake Lure. It’s definitely her style, and she’s got just the windows for it!