Road Trips & Vacations
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The Biltmore House. Odds are you have either been or already have a good deal of information on the largest private residence in the United States so I won’t elaborate with a lot of details here. We stopped in for the wine tasting got a little turned around and ended up taking a few pictures after dark of the outside of the building. The estate is beautiful and was great to try and take some shots with the new Nikon camera. We also went on the wine tasting – it wasn’t bad even after the beer tour.
After a morning of driving and hiking the first thing we did when we got back to Asheville was look for a nice cold infusion of barely and hops or as people back home like to call it – BEER. We stopped for lunch and asked the waiter about local breweries and found out we were within walking distance of the French Broad Brewery. The place is very similar to the Big Boss in design with the brewery and tasting room (code word: bar) being immediately adjacent. We sampled a couple of beers – decided on a full beer to try and say and watched the guys work on their craft. Not a bad way to spend a little time in the afternoon. The beer was good and is sold in a couple of locations in Raleigh – I think we’ve seen it at the Pit and Busy Bee as seasonals. I liked the Wee Heavy-er Scotch Ale that I tried and would likely order it again.
On our way back to Asheville we decided to look for a waterfall and after a short detour at a Mingus Mill we found what we were looking for in Mingo Falls. On the guide map we purchased at the ranger station for $1 it listed the hike as around a quarter mile round trip and moderate in nature. Moderate being secret range code for straight up.
After a short but relatively exhausting hike the falls are pretty awesome. Estimates on the height of the falls range from 120-180 feet depending on which you like better the guide map or the sign at the bottom of the hill.
These falls are on the reservation and the trail head is relatively easy to find. It isn’t far from the main area at all. Definitely worth driving the 5-10 minutes out of your way to see.
Leaving Cherokee we opted to drive through Maggie Valley to get back to Asheville. On the way we saw a small sign for Soco Falls and a small place to turn in. We did and when we got out we could hear the falls. (This rarely means the falls are close or even something you want to try and find.) The trail head was poorly marked with the exception of a small note to stay on the trail. Solid advice but useless if you want to know what kind of trail, how far, etc. The $1 map – also useless – this waterfall obviously didn’t make the cut. We thought about not risking it. I mean – so far we’d seen one small sign and one small warning not a lot to go on. So we started on the trail – what’s the worst that can happen? (Cue Deliverance music.)
The hike was short, relatively easy and the waterfall was really nice. Worth the effort to climb down what couldn’t have been more than 100-150 feet. Overall it wasn’t bad and really should have better signage. To the right is Mingo Falls and after the jump is a gallery of both falls.
Coming back from Gatlinburg to Cherokee through the Great Smokey Mountain National Park we saw a sign for Mingus Mill. We were looking for Mingo Falls and decided to stop. It wasn’t what we were looking for exactly but was a turn of the century mill powered by a turbine (not a water wheel as is typically thought of when you say “old mill”). Built in 1886 and still operational this was a pretty cool find. It is not at all near the waterfall we were looking for but wasn’t a bad stop. More pictures after the jump.
The trip from Cherokee to Gatlinburg through the Great Smokey Mountains National Park has always been one of my favorites. It is a relatively short trip over the mountain but gives a great perspective of how large the mountains are and how many mountains there are in the area.
The highlight of the trip is Clingman’s Dome – the highsest point in the Smokey Mountains where you can literally see for miles and on a good day above the clouds (aka smoke). You have to get luck to get there before the thin whispy clouds start to move in and hide the view. We were fortunate this time to hit that small window (for this time of year). The last time Cara and I were here visibility was extremely limited. This time I am guessing we had a range of around 30 miles or so. Supposedly under perfect conditions when pollution is low you can see over 100 miles and 7 states.
I didn’t take a lot of pictures in Cherokee (other than the Sequoia/Sequoya monument) and the village at the ranger station because so much of it is just junk stores and nonsense. Same on the Gatlinburg side. This is one case of the journey being much better than the destinations – on either side of the mountain. Yes – we went to the casino – no we didn’t take pictures. For one it was dark and two if you’ve seen one video poker machine – you’ve seen them all. More pictures of the ride over the mountain after the jump. Includes a few pictures from the ranger stations on each side and some fine literature we found for sale on the Gatlinburg (Sugarlands) side of the mountain.