You may have heard about the rain we had last week…actually, it was ten full days! We were fortunate not to experience any flooding at the Inn, and while the Blue Ridge Parkway closed for a couple of days for workers to clear the roadway of any fallen trees, it is back open and offering great views of fall foliage at elevations between 3,500 and 4,500 feet.
Hey! It’s time for this year’s fall color reports! Why the exclamation points, you ask? Well, usually, our first week report doesn’t have much to share in the way of color. Early fall in the mountains of North Carolina brings little bits of fall foliage here and there, while goldenrod and aster and cardinal flower generally make up for the mostly green landscape during the first week of fall. This year, however, is another story.
Our “Fall near Asheville” Pinterest board is now live and in full color! Fall color, that is.
Ahhhh, September. The air turns crisper and temperatures start cooling down, but remain perfectly pleasant. It’s a great month to get outside in the mountains of North Carolina! And it’s excellent for bird watching because the changing seasons mean different and interesting birds are migrating through, on their way to their winter destinations.
Don’t let the name scare you: Rattlesnake Lodge is a neat destination hike off the Blue Ridge Parkway just six miles north of Asheville, North Carolina. The hike has many points of interest and takes you through a pretty area of the mountains.
It’s black. And white. And it warbles. Guess who’s our August 2015 bird in our 12 Month of Birding series on the blog? You guessed it — the Black-and-white Warbler!
If you have a visit to Mt. Mitchell State Park on your “getaway to the North Carolina mountains” to-do list, there’s much more than just driving up, parking, and checking out the observation deck on the tallest peak in the eastern United States — there are some great hiking trails there as well.
A pleasant day-trip for hikers staying at the Inn on Mill Creek B&B is a drive and hike to Mount Pisgah, off of the Blue Ridge Parkway southwest of Asheville.
Combine a scenic drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway — complete with beautiful blooming rhododendron and photogenic verdant ridges — with a picnic lunch and short hike, and you have what we consider the perfect June afternoon in western North Carolina. One option to make this day trip happen is to head north of Asheville to Craggy Gardens, specifically, the Craggy Gardens Picnic Area.
If you’re looking for a springtime day trip while you’re staying in the North Carolina mountains, and want to see some of the area’s truly photogenic scenery, check out Crabtree Falls. This wildflower and waterfall hike is north of Asheville, off the Blue Ridge Parkway near Milepost 339, between Mt. Mitchell State Park and Little Switzerland.
