Each month this summer, we’re featuring one of the four North Carolina State Parks closest to the Inn on Mill Creek, and August is reserved for a guest favorite: Grandfather Mountain. Let’s learn a little bit about this special place.
The official start to fall is just six weeks away, but who’s counting? OK, we admit it. We are! After a hot and dry July, we’re so ready for the cool and crisp autumn mountain air that we know and love. This post will highlight what to expect when you visit the Asheville, NC, area during the fall season.
During the summer months, we’re profiling the four state parks near Asheville, NC, as part of Inn on Mill Creek’s nod to the 100th birthday of the North Carolina State Park System in 2016. Our July feature is Chimney Rock State Park and its iconic 315-foot granite namesake. Currently, the way to get to the top of Chimney Rock is a set of 499 steps. So…up, up, up, we go. Let’s do this.
The year 2016 is the 100th anniversary of the North Carolina State Park System and NC State Parks are celebrating in a big way with events throughout the year. There are nine state parks in the mountains of western North Carolina, and we’re fortunate to have four nearby, which we’ll profile for the next four months. This month, we take a look at Mount Mitchell State Park.
If you’re looking for a super-scenic day trip hike while staying with us here at Inn on Mill Creek near Asheville, NC, consider a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Graveyard Fields. Is it a graveyard? Nope. Is it a field? You could say that… but it’s so much more. Let’s explore.
The greenway closest to the Inn on Mill Creek, Point Lookout Trail, is getting some much-needed repairs soon! This means that the trail will be closed during the summer of 2016, but the work being done will provide long-term benefits, which is great news because this is a favorite trail for our guests.
Craggy Gardens is a section of the North Carolina mountains accessible via the Blue Ridge Parkway, north of Asheville. It has excellent hiking trails, a picnic area, cool mountaintop balds with wild blueberry bushes and dramatic mountain vistas. Read on to see what we saw on our hike of the Craggy Gardens Trail in early May! Hint: Wildflowers galore and other cool stuff that makes us love love love nature.
Looking to get outdoors during your springtime visit to the Asheville area? A waterfall hike can be a great experience for many reasons: a chance to see spring wildflowers and other vibrant spring green everywhere, fewer crowds on the trails than in the summer and fall, and also the snow melt from higher elevations and the occasional spring rain shower make for more water…falling. One waterfall we like happens to be the closest one to the Inn on Mill Creek: Catawba Falls.
Winter Storm Jonas visited us on January 22, 2016, blanketing the ground with snow and resulting in a pristine winter landscape for us to enjoy over the next couple of days (next weekend’s forecast…60 degrees!).
Peak is passing at our elevation (2,300 feet), and this will be our final fall leaf report for the Asheville, Black Mountain and Old Fort, NC, area for 2015.
