Nov 18 :  From the Mountains to the Sea

Our last entry ended with us leaving Great Smoky Mt National Park. We went east a little ways to Asheville N.C and after setting up camp, our first stop was the N.C. Arboretum. We walked through the formal gardens and took a walk on a

nature trail; enjoyed their excellent collection of bonsai; and had fun watching the staff putting up Christmas decorations. 

The next day we went to the Biltmore Estate. This home built by George Vanderbilt in 1895 is the largest private residence

in the United States and it is truly amazing and opulent which reminds me of  European castle. We had a self guided tour with headphones which was very interesting and informative. We were also lucky to be there when all the Christmas decorations were in place making it even more beautiful. 

We  also toured the gardens and the Conservatory which had absolutely beautiful plants in it including lots of orchids and unusual colored poinsettias.

We drove over to Antler Hill Village and Winery, another part not the estate, and toured some of the estates original farm buildings, a  museum about the Vanderbilts and their legacy and went to a complimentary wine tasting.

Leaving Asheville, we continued to Asheboro, NC to visit the North Carolina Zoo which we had not been to in 28 years. It is billed as the worlds largest natural habitat zoo and it is huge! The animals have large habitats and sometimes you can barely see them in the distance. It was very nice and we got in a very good walk seeing all the animals.

Continuing east, we went Jordan Lake near Chapel Hill, NC and camped for 4 nights. We lived in Chapel Hill for 8 years from 1985 -1994, so this was like “old home” week. But boy has the place changed with new subdivisions and buildings everywhere. We were lucky to be able to visit with several old friends and it was great seeing them again. We walked around  the UNC campus where Mark worked and saw the new Durham County Library where Laurie worked. It was closed for 3 years and rebuilt on the same footprint.

It is quite beautiful and a state of the art library. One day, we took an excursion to Southern Pines to take a walk at Weymouth Woods Sandhill Nature Preserve - it is beautiful country over there.

After we left Chapel Hill, we headed east all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. We camped for 3 nights at Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The weather was lovely while we were there. We saw 2 lighthouses : Bodie Island Lighthouse and Cape Hatteras Lighthouse.

Cape Hatteras Light House

Bodie Island Light House

We visited the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site on Roanoke Island. This is the site of the first English settlement in North America 1587 and the site of the birth of the first English child, Virginia Dare. When another boat returned in 1590, the 117 English settlers had disappeared. To this day, no one knows what happened to them.

Earth Works at Fort Raleigh

We also visited  the Wright Brothers National Memorial  and saw where the Wright brothers made the first powered flight in such a tiny airplane

and we visited Jockey’s Ridge State Park which has the highest sand dunes on the East coast

and of course we walked the beach.  

We spent one night at Cliffs of the Neuse State Park.

It is a very nice state park with lots of trails. Our last 2 nights in North Carolina were spent at Carolina Beach State Park near Wilmington where we visited Airlie Gardens in Wilmington. They are especially famous for their azaleas but I can attest that they are also beautiful in November as there are varieties of azaleas that bloom in the spring and again in the fall. The garden is set along Bradley Creek and has huge live oaks draped with Spanish moss. There were formal gardens as well as

natural areas with paths through them. There was also a special exhibit of owl sculptures scattered throughout the gardens, and it was fun trying to spot all of the

owls. We also visited the New Hanover County Arboretum which had a variety of very nice exhibits including a lovely Japanese garden.

Back at Carolina Beach and nearby Kure Beach, we enjoyed walking on the beach, boardwalk  and fishing pier. We also visited Fort Fisher State Historic Site. We knew nothing about Fort Fisher, but this large earthen work fort played a very important part in the Civil War. It guarded the Cape Fear River and Wilmington for the Confederate army .

It was the last Confederate Seaport that remained opened. The fort fell to the Union forces and navy in February 0f 1865.  The loss of the Confederate’s last open port and its supply chain shortly led to the defeat of the Confederacy. It was very interesting.

We left Carolina Beach and North Carolina on November 17 and are now at Huntington Beach State Park south of Myrtle Beach SC, but….more about that next time!!!

 Nov 2, 2021  Fabulous Fall Colors

We left Mammoth Cave on October 21and drove south and east to visit some of our favorite Tennessee state parks. (We lived in Tennessee from 1980 - 1985). We did not remember how hilly that part of Tennessee is and we did not anticipate the beautiful fall colors thinking they would be done or past their prime while we are here.

Having lived in Oregon for almost 28 years we don’t see a lot of fall colors as we have mostly conifers so this was a nice surprise and we commented on the colors between ourselves all the time..

The first park we visited was Edgar Evins State Park on Center Hill Lake..The campground is in such a hilly area that all the campsites are built on platforms on the hillside.

Our site overlooked the lake - pretty neat! The next park we went to was Cumberland Mt State Park. It was our first time here and it was very nice with a small lake and lots of hikes. The Civilian Conservation Corp played a big part in developing Cumberland Mt SP and they have a nice museum honoring them and a lot of their work is still evident including a very beautiful bridge.

Then we spent 3 nights at Fall Creek Falls State Park. This used to be one of our favorite state parks to visit, but we haven’t been there for about 20 years and hardly recognized the park but we did recognize the waterfalls and took several hikes.

The hike to the bottom of Fall Creek Falls was very steep and not very well maintained. They also had some very neat suspension  bridges. The colors were very nice here.

Our next stop was Great Smoky Mt National Park. We used to spend a lot of time visiting here when we lived in the East. The park is very beautiful and the fall colors

were spectacular! However, it is the most visited national park in the country and everyone was here to see the colors so the traffic was  heavy and we could hardly find parking at the trailheads of the most popular hikes. We ended up hiking to Laurel Falls, one of my favorite hikes from my childhood, and we went on the Cades Cove Scenic Loop and the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. We took less well known trails like the Jakes Creek Trail, the Little River Trail and the Kephardt Prong Trail, all less crowded and very beautiful with fall colors. 

We camped 6 nights at Elkmont Campground, about 7 miles outside of Gatlinburg, and 2 nights at Smokemont Campground outside of Cherokee. We visited the Elkmont Historic Area which has restored cottages from the early 1900’s. That was very interesting to see. From Smokemont, we drove up to Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the park,

and then waited 35 minutes for a parking space. Then we walked 1/2 mile up to the observation tower with what seemed like hundreds of other people. The view was spectacular and the walk down was a lot easier! We took a 1/4 mile fir nature trail on the way down learning about the trees in the Smokies - most are deciduous trees, but high up there are more conifers and it reminded us of home.

One special unexpected treat was seeing a very large  herd of reintroduced native elk at the Oconoluftee visitor center at sunset!

Another treat was an excursion on the Great Smoky Mt Railroad from Bryson City, NC to Dillsboro, NC along the Tuckaseegee River.

It was a very nice excursion and we met a very nice cat while eating our lunch. Getting there and back was quite an adventure as it turned out there were severe wind warnings, 40 mph sustained and 70 mph gusts in the mountains that day and RT.441, across the park was closed, so it took us twice as long to get there as we anticipated, but we made it on time!

Now we are traveling on the Central North Carolina so stay tuned for more…