"Week in the High Country"

A very spacious king study with coffee table and couch. A nice place to stay for the night before having to leave to go back home. Convenient to shopping, Charlotte, NC (and the airport there), as well as plenty of dinner choices in the area.

Best Things Nearby:
Grandfather Mountain, Pappy's Barbeque, Sugar Mountain, Linville Caverns, Mast General Store, Tanger Outlet Mall in Blowing Rock, Southern Sideboard Cafeteria, Tweetsie Railroad.

Best Things About the Resort:
The atmosphere of Smoketree Lodge is definitely "homey". Southern hospitality abounds, and the Lodge is like your own home. There is a spacious lobby area, and the rooms are very homey.

Resort Experience:
Smoketree Lodge is nestled in the high country of the Blue Ridge Mountains. You are surrounded by mountains, with an excellent view of Grandfather Mountain from the Lodge. In the spacious lobby, there is room to relax, or go out on the patio area and enjoy the waterfall that runs through the property. The staff is very friendly and helpful, with suggestions for places to visit and enjoy. If you are looking for a place where you can relax and unwind, enjoy yourself and the country around you, Smoketree Lodge is definitely the place to visit.

We had a large studio, which was very spacious. I would almost consider this by its size and floor space to really be a one-bedroom unit. There was a kitchenette area, which was larger than most kitchens in an average apartment. There was enough space also for a dining room table of good size and chairs. There was also an easy chair and two full size beds. Very spacious room. The unit was well equipped with everything you needed for the kitchen and bath. Also included was an iron and ironing board. The best part of the room, however, was the skylight. You had a beautiful view at night, as well as being able to watch the clouds go by in the day. And of course, the views of the Blue Ridge Mountains out the windows was wonderful as well.

• Unit Type: Studio
• Activities: Excellent
• Amenities: Excellent
• Unit Satisfaction: Excellent
• Family Friendliness: Excellent
• Service: Excellent

Southern Sideboard Cafeteria is an old-fashioned Southern cafeteria dining experience. While at first glance Southern Sideboard appears to be a typical family fare type of experience, the quality of the food immediately places it into a level that few places can match for such a reasonable price.

Selections are varied, with a wide range of choices. You can go with a platter combination, or an a la carte choice range of entrees, vegetables, salads, sides, breads, and desserts. Portion sizes are just right, and depending on how you choose, you can take care of most any size appetite.

Examples for the food: The mashed potatoes are creamy and delicious, almost straight out of heaven. The vegetables are cooked southern style, and are very tasty. The biscuits are also a small bit of heaven, buttery and light. Everything is cooked fresh, not pre-fabricated or sitting and waiting to be served.

Southern Sideboard is definitely not to be missed in a trip to the High Country.

Delicious and mouth-watering, Pappy's is the place to visit for barbecue in the High Country. Prices are very reasonable, and the service is down-home friendly. Starting with your sweet tea, they also bring you a pitcher so that refills are easy.

We had the corn nuggets appetizer, which was fresh and tasty. The center was creamy, with the corn crisp and fresh. For dinner, we had the St. Louis style ribs platter and the grilled chicken and ribs dinner platter. The meats were freshly smoked and ready for saucing. We used Pappy's mild sauce, which brought out the flavors of the meats in an incredible way. The ribs are tender and melt in your mouth, so much so that the meat almost jumps off the bone. The steak fries that came with the St. Louis ribs dinner were excellent--crisp and fresh tasting. The grilled chicken and ribs came with a baked sweet potato that was mouthwatering and tender. We took home dessert, two slices of pecan pie. The pie was incredibly tasty, fresh pecans and a melt in your mouth crust.

Pappy's does have a website available with a partial menu and pricing here.

Not your average fast food chain, Back Yard Burgers has the best tasting fast food burger you will find just about anywhere. The burgers are fresh grilled and cooked to order. We had the bacon cheddar burgers with waffle fries. The bacon cheddar burger is unique for using shredded cheddar rather than a slice of cheese. The flavor of the burger is fresher and tastier with the grilling done to order. The waffle fries are fresh cooked also, and very tender and tasty with the right amount of salt.

We really enjoyed our visit to the Boone, NC, Back Yard Burgers and highly recommend them. If you are interested in looking at a Back Yard Burgers menu, or finding a location near you, you can visit their website at Backyard Burgers.

For the gem mining, you purchase a bucket full of rocks, sand, and other assorted debris. They come in three sizes--small, medium, and large. The medium, at $20, is a good value, both for the stones you find (some really good sizes), but also for the time it takes going through it.

After purchasing your bucket, you then sit in the mining area, where you have a wooden square screen (called a sift) that you run through running water with scoopfuls of rocks and stones in it.

The fun comes in the discovery of each scoopful you are working with. Do you have just rocks, or are there quartz, minerals, or gemstones? You mainly are looking for the darker stones, which are often tourmaline, sapphire, garnet, or other gemstones. But there are also "glassy" type stones--the quartz--that you may also find in your mining experience. There are also some native rocks and stones that you may find as well, such as Blue Iolite and pyrite (fool's gold).

Our day was capped by the fact that we found several large stones of a good size in mining that are able to be cut into gemstones for jewelry. There was a large piece of tourmaline (at approx. $150-300 a carat), with an expected size for us of at least two to three carats, possibly larger. There is a garnet that we will probably end up with a four to five carat gemstone. And then an amethyst that will yield a heart shaped stone of approximately three carats.

Staff are available to help you determine which stones you have found in mining that are worth having cut into gemstones, as well as helping you to identify the stones you have found.

The main location of Foggy Mountain Gem Mine (we were at a "branch") has a website here.

While smaller than the average outlet mall, Tanger Outlets in Blowing Rock does have a good selection of stores for clothing. You have a wide range of choices for shopping for just about every type of clothing you might need, from dressy to business casual to childrens to sportswear.

There is also no lack of places to get your accessories, like shoes and jewelry. They also have a very nice coupon discount book available for the mall, which also helps in the savings you get from shopping outlet. There is also a very nice casual restaurant available there for a break in shopping, the Parkway Cafe.

Built in 1883 (with the Annex building 2/10ths of a mile down the highway built in 1909), a trip to the Mast General Store is like taking a trip back to the Old South. Sitting on the back porch on a rocker, or a swing, drinking a soda from a real historic glass bottle, takes one back to the early 20th century . . . or even before. On a beautiful, pleasant, sunny day, you can picture what life was like back in the "old days" in the South.

Walking through the store, one also is taken back to the "old days". There is even the Valley Crucis post office in the store, complete with post office boxes for the town residents. While traversing the store, you see all kinds of the various dry goods one might find in an old general store, from household needs to clothes, personal care items to hiking and camping supplies, food supplies to candy. And ah, the candy. Both in the General Store, and the Annex, there is a wide range of the old candies you remember from childhood that you just don't seem to see any more: Necco wafers, candy lips, candy cigarettes, carmel bullseyes, jawbreakers, candy sticks of every flavor, rock candy, and the list goes on and on.

A visit to the Mast General Store not only takes you to a place listed on the National Historic Register, it takes you back to a time when life was a whole lot quieter and simpler. Grab a bottle of Grape Nehi, or whatever your favorite old soft drink is, sit down on the back porch, and enjoy watching the clouds pass by in sky.

When you first walk in to the museum, you are greeted by a life size statue of Mildred the Bear. Mildred was a resident bear at the animal preserve until her death. Walking up to the statue, you see in person the actual size of a live black bear.

There are exhibits available on the geography, geology, history and animals of Grandfather Mountain. You can see the finest amethyst ever found in North Carolina, along with the largest gold nugget on display in the state. There are many learning exhibits, such as the birds of North Carolina, history of Indians in North Carolina, Gems & Minerals of North Carolina, and many more. There are also "hands on" exhibits such as the billion year old rock. We stayed in the museum itself about an hour, and could have easily spent much longer were it not for time constraints on our part. We really enjoyed it, and definitely recommend making time to visit it as part of your trip to Grandfather Mountain.

There is more information about the museum available at the Grandfather Mountain Nature Museum web page at .

Grandfather Mountain has seven habitat areas that are the actual native habitat for black bears and bear cubs, river otters, cougars, bald eagles, golden eagles and white tailed deer. The habitat area is very different from a "zoo", because the areas the animals are in a natural mountain habitat, the same setting you would normally find these animals in.

You are separated by moats or bridges or retaining walls. Our most impressive chance was to be able to get close to bald eagles. You could see the beauty of their feathers, and we got to watch one of them even preening.

It was wonderful to be able to see all of these animals in a natural setting, going about their regular daily activities.

More information on the habitats at Grandfather Mountain is available at their website, http://www.grandfather.com/habitats/habitats.htm

Grandfather Mountain has a myriad of activities available for everyone, from hiking trails to the animal habitats and the nature museum. Grandfather Mountain is the highest elevation in the Blue Ridge Mountains. When you get to the summit, you are able to see around for miles and miles. The majesty of the mountains, the beauty of creation, the fresh mountain air, the scent of wildflowers all combine for an incredible day in nature. If you want to hike the trails on the mountain, you should plan on at least 4-6 hours, depending on the hiking trail you choose. If you are just planning on visiting the swinging bridge, animal habitats and nature museum, 3 hours or so should be enough time to see those. The Swinging Bridge is the most popular attraction at the mountain, as it is at the summit peak area of Grandfather Mountain. The views of the Blue Ridge range and Charlotte (about a 3 hour drive away!) are spectacular. Some more unique natural sites on the mountain are found in the picnic areas on the way up to the summit, such as the split rock. Also fun is Forrest Gump curve (yes, it is featured in the movie). The views of the Blue Ridge from that area are also spectacular. More information on everything available at Grandfather Mountain is available at the website at www.grandfather.com