Asheville, North Carolina

Weekend Getaway to Western North Carolina

April 23, 2021

After months of staying home thanks to COVID my husband took some time off in November 2020 and we took another road trip to Asheville! This was actually our second time in Western North Carolina, we drove there in January 2020 while my mom and brother were visiting us, and before the pandemic hit. So so thankful we got to show them around NC before the world shut down. I didn’t take many photos on that trip so I didn’t blog about it.

Anyway, we really needed an escape so we booked a small mountain cabin on AirBnb, packed up the dogs, and headed out for a little weekend getaway. We arrived around 5 pm, dropped off the dogs, got groceries nearby, cooked dinner, and chilled in the hot tub after the long 7-hour drive.

Our first full day was spent outdoors! There are so many hikes to choose from in this area but we decided to drive to the Pisgah National Forest, which was only 20min away from our AirBnb. We hit the Moore Cove Falls trail with the dogs, which is an easy 2-mile hike. We picked it because it’s pet-friendly and a fairly easy hike, our dog Ponzo is 11 years old so we didn’t want anything too rough and he was in heaven!! Before leaving the forest we stopped at Looking Glass Falls which is right on the side of the road, mostly for me to take pictures. After that quick adventure, we dropped the tired dogs off at the cabin and headed off to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway!

(scroll down to read about the rest of our eventful day)

^^ the dogs were kind of a mess, LOL! ^^

^ our adorable little cabin in the woods ^

I have to add that no trip ever goes 100% according to plan… and the phone GPS likes to screw with us from time to time… and of course, when we were FINALLY going to get to drive this famous scenic road around the Blue Ridge Mountains (that I regretted not doing on our last trip) the GPS decides to send us through a gravel mountain road instead!! LOL! We saw the Blue Ridge Parkway sign pointing to an exit but the GPS was telling us to keep going straight… so we did and UGH it’s always so scary when you’re in a secluded random road in the middle of nowhere with no way of turning back… and of course, we were so mad!

We had plans to visit the Craggy Gardens and do the Craggy Pinnacle Hike… but finally after getting off that crazy mountain road and onto the Blue Ridge Parkway we found that the road towards the Craggy Garden was blocked off because of a landslide (we think) or something else caused by rains the previous week. Another huge bummer there… so we decided to just drive down the Blue Ridge Parkway like we were supposed to and just stop at several overlooks along the way.

Sunset was quickly approaching so we decided to drive back up to the area around the blocked off road because there were a bunch of cars in a parking lot, so we parked and walked around hoping for something interesting… and of course, there wasn’t! ‘Twas another fail… so we had no choice but to see the sunset from the overlooks. It was gorgeous nonetheless and we even spotted a bear while driving down!

^^ a blurry photo that shows the insane road the GPS took us through… although there were still cool things to see ^^

That sunset was absolutely gorgeous!! So thankful we got to experience it. Anyway if you made it this far in this post, you rock! Here’s the link to the AirBnb we stayed at, Babbling Brooke Cottage, it is a bit secluded but we enjoyed it!