Blue Ridge Mountain Blog

The 63rd Tennessee Rhododendron Festival will be outdoors at Roan Mountain State Park in the Amphitheater area June 20-21, 2009: Saturday 10 till 7; Sunday 10 till 5 p.m.

Over 100 arts and crafts vendors and a variety of food will be available.  Visit the world’s largest natural rhododendrom gardens atop 6000-foot Roan Mountain.  Hike the Appalachian Trail as it runs along the border of Tennessee and North Carolina.  Learn about our nation’s history as you relax beside cool streams.

Roan Mountain State Park, Hwy 143, Roan Mountain, TN.  Located only 40 miles from Boone, NC and 20 miles from Banner Elk/Linville, NC.  The Appalachian Trail runs through this community.  For more information, please visit http://www.roanmountain.com/festival.htm.

Loaves and Fishes Restaurant, located right on Hwy-221 in Crossnore, is a favorite local spot. Hours of operation are extremely short, even in the summer, but when we manage to make it, we get to enjoy the area’s best salad.  Chopstix Chicken Salad is a delicious and refreshing summer treat.  It is extremely hard to find a good healthy salad with a non-creamy dressing.  This salad offers lots of different textures and requires a lot of chewing - a good exercise that makes you eat less!  The Mandarin Orange Sesame Dressing that comes with it is just right for this salad.  All this plus a small delicous croissant for $6.95.

Loaves and Fishes also makes great homemade desserts.  This week we enjoyed “coconut buttermilk pie.”  It was so good we took home an extra slice!  If you are into early dinners, give this place a try sometime.  Have you tried it?  What do you think?

We thouroughly enjoyed the concert yesterday evening at the Beech Alpen Pavillion atop Beech Mt.  The weather was wonderful and the band, Harris Brothers, was really good!  We enjoyed a good beer while listening to the music mostly geared to baby boomers.  There were a lot of people enjoying this free event and you had the option of enjoying hamburgers on the grill or sitting in the deck of the more formal restaurant and enjoying a meal from their delicious menu while listening to the music from there. 

The place looked like a German-style Beer Garden. The owner of the hotel, Fred, told us they plan to do this every Sunday evening.  A welcome addition to choices of things to do in the High Country.

The Headwaters at Banner Elk
 a new gated community featuring luxury mountain villas, gentle terrain, gorgeous mountain view lots, fishing lakes, trails & club amenities, masterfully planned to provide a luxurious mountain-living experience.

Avery County Chamber of Commerce

4501 Tynecastle Highway, Unit #2
Intersection of NC 105 & NC 184
Banner Elk, NC 28604

828-898-5605
800-972-2183
Fax 828-898-8287

Balcony of the Blue Ridge

Title: SugarFest
Location: Sugar Mountain Banner Elk
Description: SugarFest kick starts the winter season with a weekend of pure winter fun
Start Date: 2008-12-13
End Date: 2008-12-14

SugarFest kick starts the winter season with a weekend of pure winter fun! Sponsored by the Village of Sugar Mountain Tourism Development Authority (TDA) and hosted by Sugar Mountain Resort, SugarFest will be held December 13th and 14th, 2008.

The two-day festival is packed with a long list of winter activities and coincides with Sugar’s 15th Annual Adult Preseason Ski Clinic where 1994 Olympic Gold & 1992 Olympic Silver medalist Diann Roffe and two-time (1992 & 1994) Olympian, Krista Schmidinger will both be special guest coaches.

The Village of Sugar Mountain

Title: SUGAR MOUNTAIN OKTOBERFEST CELEBRATION
Location: Sugar Mountain
Description: Grab your beer stein, put on your lederhosen and head to Sugar Mountain Resort for the 18th annual Oktoberfest celebration
Start Date: 2008-10-11
End Date: 2008-10-12

http://www.skisugar.com

When visiting the High Country area of the Blue Ridge Mountains don’t forget
to visit The Orchard at Altapass!

Located right off the Blue Ridge Parkway at mile post 328.3, you will find the
historic Orchard at Altapass which is celebrating it’s 100 years. It is
celebrating the people, music, art and natural beauty of the Blue Ridge
mountains in North Carolina. The Orchard sits right on the Parkway providing
some of the most amazing scenery on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Enjoy family fun by the bushels! While you tap your toes to their authentic
mountain music, or eat some of their homemade goodies. Enjoy hayrides,
storytelling, an interesting shop and apples.

This 4th of July [2008] from 11-5pm they will have their annual BBQ & Covered
Dish Dinner Admission: Bring a dish large enough for your party and some extra
for the musicians. The Orchard provides the barbecue, paper goods, iced tea and water, and the musicians entertain all day in half hour segments. If you cannot bring a dish, dinners cost $10 each. PS - You might bring along a couple of lawn chairs. For more info visit
www.altapassorchard.com

Outstanding scenery and recreational opportunities make the Blue Ridge Parkway one of the most popular units of the National Park System. “America’s Favorite Drive” winds its way 469 miles through mountain meadows and past seemingly endless vistas. Split-rail fences, old farmsteads and historic structures complement spectacular views of distant mountains and neighboring valleys.

The 53rd Grandfather Mountain Highland Games will be held July 10-13, 2008 at MacRae Meadows on Grandfather Mountain near Linville, NC.
Brawny athletes, delicate dancers, noisy bagpipe band parades, rocking Celtic music and a spectacular highland setting makes this colorful celebration of Scottish culture the best highland games in America.
Click here for more details.