We invite you to take a break from the day to day stresses of life and enjoy a quiet cabin getaway on the Saluda River.
Young Joseph Blythe and his bride carefully maneuvered their wagon and horse through the thick forest of hemlock, oak, poplar and white pines. They had traveled a long distance and were wearily searching for a place to camp for the night. When they emerged from the forest, they discovered a place that would become something much more than an overnight camp. They discovered the beautiful, calm waters of the Saluda River. It was here the young couple established their home and began raising their family.
The same scenic beauty, calm waters, majestic trees are available to any who are seeking refuge from the pressure-filled, hectic schedules of life. The shady, gently sloping banks of the Saluda are waiting to offer you the same calming and mystical charm it gave the Blythes’ in days gone by.
This rustic, completely updated, 1940s era cabin sites in an area named for this adventurous Blythe family. It sits on the banks of the Saluda River, just feet from the waters edge. Yes, with proper equipment, you can cast from the screened porch to catch multiple rainbow and brown trout as well as brim and catfish. The river is stocked weekly making the fishing some of the best around. Just a short distance down-river are the shoals that bear the Blythe name. As you sit on the riverside patio the resident “beaver family” will introduce themselves to you as they go on their daily swim-along happily. As they pass by, they will slap their tails on the water as their way to say hello.
We are offering an unfurnished four year old log cabin style home with three bedrooms and two baths. The stunning views feature one side overlooking Lake Jocassee stretching up to Whiteside Mountain in Cashiers, NC and Table Rock and Caesar’s Head on the other side.
Has a long deck to enjoy the views outdoors, oversized windows, large storage basement. Kitchen has refrigerator and oven/range.
This three bedroom, two bath home is located in The Rock at Jocassee golfing community. This house will sleep six with two Queen size beds and bunk beds in the upstairs loft. There is a full kitchen, flat screen TV with Satellite, decks and covered parking for two vehicles.
Right across the street are horse stables where you can schedule a horseback riding trail ride. You can also take a short walk to enjoy the 18-hole golf course, tennis courts, restaurant and swimming pool.
Sliding Rock is and has been a well known summer time “escape the heat” recreation area located in close proximity to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Administered by the US Forest Service in this Pisgah National Forest protectorate, the 60' natural rock slide boasts a 6 - 7 foot deep pool at the base in normal non drought conditions. In recent years, the area has been developed by the park service with observation decks, a rope line to steady yourself as well as pull yourself up by while waiting your turn to slide, lifeguards, and ranger staff. The latter are on duty from approximately Memorial Day week end to Labor Day. Kids have to be a certain size to slide by themselves but can sit on the lap of an adult and slide.
So as Memorial Day Weekend rolls in, be sure to bring your swimming suit too since Sliding Rock really is a natural slide that visitors and locals alike have been enjoying for eons long before the water theme parks came into being. This mountain fed river is refreshingly cool you can be sure in the summer time and you too will remember sliding on Sliding Rock as a highlight to a nice summer time getaway in the Carolina Mountains. There is a fee of $1 per person to access the area, which is 7.5 miles north of Hwy 64 on Hwy 276. For more info, call the US Forest Service at 828-877-3350. The Pisgah National Forest is located on Highway 64 between Brevard and Waynesville on the North Carolina side of the Carolina Mountain Paradise. Gotta getaway this summer? Do it in the Blue Ridge Mountains here in the Carolinas.
The third annual Old Fort Pow Wow Event is scheduled for the second weekend in May at the Old Fort Fairgrounds. So all you Native American Dancers, get your dancing moccasins on and plan to be in attendance. It’s pow wow time again! Come and enjoy the Third Annual Old Fort Pow Wow at the Rodeo Grounds in Old Fort, North Carolina. The dates are May 9-11, 2008. Activities start at 9A.M. Friday, Saturday and Sunday and go until 9 P.M. on Friday and Saturday and 5 P.M. on Sunday. There will be dancing, drumming, and singing. Hey, even you can dance! There will be story tellers, flint knappers, pipe carvers, craft makers and Native American food comprised of fry bread, Indian tacos, and buffalo burgers.Dave Trezak,
with a fine maternal lineage mixture of Cherokee and Lakota, is the much traveled Emcee. He is a Native American Music Award Nominee. Now that man can flat put on a show! There will be something going on all day, so bring your lawn chairs and stay all day. Grand Entry is at 7 P.M. on Friday, 1 and 7 P.M. on Saturday, and 1 P.M. on Sunday. Luck of the draw dance money for registered dancers. Admission donation is $5 for Adults and $2 for Children. For more information, call McDowell County Tourism Bureau at 888-233-6111 or Mabel at 813-765-3073.
Long before the European culture came to the Cherokee homeland here in the Carolinas of the Great Smokies and the Blue Ridge Mountains, Native American lore spoke of mythic giants such as Judaculla; a fierce slant eyed giant, as one that dwelt in a cave that European settlers came to know as “The Devil's Courthouse”. The turn of the 19th/20th century anthropologist James Mooney had earlier placed Judaculla at Tanasee Bald where Hayward, Jackson, and Transylvania counties meet at Whiteside Mountain. Others claim that the Tennessee Bald Located at mile marker 422 of the Blue Ridge Parkway was the actual home of this Giant being from Cherokee Legend. Regardless of where the giant actually resided, later folk tales say that the devil holds court in the chambers of caves that can be found at both locations.
The Smoky Mountain Devil's Courthouse is accessible by taking the trail upward by climbing a half mile to a peak that features panoramic views. In Cherokee oral tradition, a cave within what is nowadays known as the Tennessee Bald is the private dancing chamber and dwelling place of a resident giant. Regardless the panoramic view from the summit includes four states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee according to Wikipedia. The Whiteside Mountain “Devil’s Courthouse” has stunning views as well and is equally remotely accessible in the Carolina High Country along the Blue Ridge range of mountains. There is no greater locale than the Carolina Mountain Country for both breath taking beauty, Native American oral tradition, and early American legend all woven into one.
There is no confusion among the inhabitants here in The Western North Carolina Mountains about the Christian Faith of our Forefathers. Given the abundance of mountain community churches, it is no great surprise to find an extraordinary tribute to the Old Testament, The world's largest Ten Commandments Monument located just outside of Murphy, North Carolina. Residing in these parts since it’s completion during the early 1940’s, Reverend Ambrose Tomlinson erected this tribute along with other well known Biblical themed Old Testament Monuments. Revealed in a vision to Rev. Tomlinson years before, the founder of the Church of God of Prophecy (700,000 members strong throughout the world) also fashioned replicas depicting Golgotha and Joseph’s Tomb.
His monumental Ten Commandments construction project feature concrete letters 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide on the mountainside across from where he had prayed and received his vision. According to the Western Carolina Attractions website, “Other oversized markers include, the world's largest altar, a concrete structure 80 ft. long erected where Tomlinson prayed, the world's largest New Testament, an open concrete Bible 30 feet tall and 50 feet wide, and the world's largest cross, a prone concrete structure 115 feet wide and 150 feet long, lined by the flags of the eighty-six nations in which the church can be found. A replica of Christ's tomb was also built at the park, and an outdoor baptismal pool which is used by thousands annually.” So all you Christian faithful looking to reinvigorate your faith through a mountain themed pilgrimage, this blended mountainside attraction situated amongst the Carolina Mountains might well be worth a day trip drive or a weekend getaway excursion.
Calling all traveling gourmets,Carolina Getaways has the latest
Upcountry information on where discriminating taste buds are most likely to be
titillated while sampling the tastiest local barbecue with your preferred
sauce, or merely have a hankering for your basic home cooked southern staple of
collard greens with ham hocks, black eyed peas, and cornbread in any of our
trademark Carolina Restauranteateries? If so, then open your mouth for a taste of the Old South along our
Carolina Blue Ridge Culinary Trail! As cultural tourism is on the grow
all across the country, the foothills and mountains of the Carolinas and
Georgia has led the charge in proactively hooking up regional restaurants and
international tourists that are just now becoming familiar with our traditional
meals.
So what separates our mountain destination vacation area
from other vacation destinations, you might ask, from a cultural tourism
standpoint? Here in the Upcountry, tourists are attracted to hundreds of
thousands of acres of breathtaking Western Carolina and Georgia
territory which includes thirteen state parks in South
Carolina alone. When taking a scenic tour along
Cherokee Foothills Highway 11, the scenery reveals a great deal about the
area’s heritage and history. Running
parallel to this route across the state line of South
Carolina, the northern neighbor in North Carolina features winding highway 64 which runs the Blue
Ridge Mountains east to west on into Georgia
through some very well known resort mountain towns that are refreshingly far
removed from the congested Interstate Highway Systems. With that in mind, plan your cultural getaway
to the Western Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains and sample the mouth watering
cuisine found in the local non-chain restaurants of these mountain
communities. You’ll be returning for
second servings, of this you can be sure.
With over thirty downtown Asheville Art Galleries, it is no wonder that Western North Carolina’s recognized Art Center provides creative outlets for thousands of working artists of every genre here in their Carolina Mountain home tucked away in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The themed festivals crank up early in Asheville’s trendy historic district and serious art collecting connoisseur destination with the kick off next weekend of the 2008 winter season’s Fringe Festival. The brainchild of ACDT’s Artistic and Co-Directors, Susan and Giles Collard, the AFF’s mission rides literally on the Asheville Art Community’s ability to initiate cutting edge performances of “avant garde work” as their website states below:
The Asheville Fringe Festival serves patrons of art from Asheville and beyond by facilitating the creation and production of avant garde performance art work
that may otherwise not find a venue. In past years the artistic mix has included actors, dancers, singers, videographers, painters and musicians, presenting a varied range of interesting work including cross-genre improvisation, Butoh dance, sketch theatre, modern dance, and multi-media performance art. The spirit of the festival also leaves the city “vulnerable” to random acts of art, such as fire-dancing in the street or mass mobs of poets.
Holding a high standard for artistic integrity, the Fringe Advisory Board, comprised of representatives from each participating venue, holds an open call each fall. Artists are invited to show their work or discuss their working concept. Video submissions are also accepted. The board adjudicates the work and assigns accepted artists to appropriate venues. Each venue plays host to a variety of performers, assuring an interesting mix to challenge and delight audiences.
So plan a weekend road trip to Carolina Getaways own personal favorite mountain town, Asheville, North Carolina, next weekend and observe some highly creative and visually pleasing performance art renderings.
Now that the icy chill of the winter season has set in here in the upcountry, a not inconsequential number of returning travelers to the Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains are making their early plans for their Carolina homecoming vacation for spring, 2008. And why not, spring's early return being just eight weeks away now as we speak, give or take a week or two. These pontoon cruise loving travelers have set their sights on the clear crystal waters of Lake Jocassee or the scenic beauty north of this pristine mountain lake up the Blue Ridge Mountain Escarpment towards Cashiers, North Carolina. And other outdoor loving travelers seek miles and miles of hiking trails along the Foothills Trail in and around Table Rock State Park towards Pinnacle Mountain and beyond. Weekend getaway sojourns of the summer season just passed in the land of Bluegrass pickers keeps the beat in one’s mind’s eye along with the fond remembrances of idyllic days in the Carolina Mountains.
Our Carolina Getaways Mountain Cabins and Golf Course Condo Homes provide the perfect base camp for that already anticipated early spring getaway excursion including weekends filled with mountain golf, a rafting trip down the Chattooga River, an historic tour of Stumphouse Mountain or an invigorating visit through the land of waterfalls in Transylvania County, NC. Throw another log on the fire and think in terms of the return of spring along the Blue Ridge Hill Country here in the Carolina Mountains. We’ll be right here when the spring rolls in for your affordable cabin rental.
