Near the southern end of the property, adjacent to Pisgah National Forest and just beyond our pond, lies a half acre of wetlands, or as they call it in the mountains, a high elevation bog.
This area is where the feeder stream babbles in to the property from the forest. It’s a home and playground to a lot of birds, including Northern Cardinals, Eastern Bluebirds, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, Eastern Phoebes, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, Carolina Wrens, and a variety of warblers, as well as bullfrogs, wood frogs and spring peepers, dragonflies and damselflies… all kinds of wonderful woodland wildlife.
One of our regular residents, the Eastern Phoebe
Ebony Jewelwing damselfly – photo taken by our guest Bill Campbell
Our wetlands is also accessible to guests who like to explore the outdoors, with 1,000 linear feet of boardwalk meandering through it, leading to observation and seating areas, outdoor artwork, and a lot of beautiful nature. We’ve tried to keep it as natural as possible, so very minimal maintenance and no landscaping out here.
A portion of the boardwalk in early spring
Looking across the pond from the boardwalk in late fall
Innkeeper Dave was the sole designer and builder of the Inn on Mill Creek B&B Boardwalk, which he is very modest about and won’t mention it himself (but he’s not writing this blog so we can embarrass him with kudos).
He just finished up the newest section of the boardwalk, which leads off a main walkway to a very large platform on the edge of the wetlands, with tables and chairs and plenty of space. Enjoy this short tour and check it out the next time you’re staying with us!
The view of Pisgah National Forest from the new boardwalk seating area