My New Favorite in Western North Carolina

Can you saw AWESOME?? What a great time we had this weekend!! I have found my new favorite place in Western NC -- it's called Little Switzerland. I had stayed here before but never really explored too much.

As I mentioned last week my hiking friend Kelli and I stayed at The Alpine Inn which is situated literally in the mountainside.

This was the view from our back deck. There's no phone, no TV, no A/C but that's part of the charm.
You might be thinking...NO A/C??!! Well, the high was 80 there in town and in the mountains on the trails it was 70!

Another view from our room at the Alpine Inn. The innkeepers Susan and Ron are some of the nicest people I've met. Interesting too.

This is what I saw from my bed when I woke up Saturday morning. No kidding..laying in bed and watching the sunrise over the Blue Ridge. Total heaven.

This was our view at breakfast.

Cute pottery for their breakfast dishes. They serve homemade granola, fresh bread and fresh fruit.

I was telling Brad about our little inn and town and he said quote: "I'm glad you have a girlfriend that likes to do that gay stuff with you." LOL!!

Downtown Little Switzerland. Cute shops, restaurants. This is a very tight knit community that attracts a lot of motorcycle enthusiasts riding the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Now for the hiking..

We did the Old Mitchell trail loop at Mount Mitchell on Saturday where as you can see I started out with a shirt over my tank top because it was chilly!

Drinking my latte on the trail. HAHA! Not really.. This was Kelli's coffee because she is so not a morning person unlike me. I think she drank coffee for the first mile of this 5-mile hike. Craziness!(I was giving her a hard time in this pix)

Absolutley GORGEOUS!! I felt like I was in heaven. I'm not sure what it is about the mountains that makes me so happy. I feel worry free, relaxed and happy just looking at this scenery.

Aside from the lush on this particular trail we ran into this grouping of trees. Very neat!

And..lots of wildflowers. I need to get my wildflower book out to find out what this is.

Most of the rhodies were done for the season but we did see a few bushes.

Then after our hike we drove back to the top of the mountain and ate at the state park restaurant.

My Mom and I ate here a few years back in the fall. It's literally the highest dining experience in the S. East.

Then back to the hotel we showered and kicked it on the back deck where we spotted a bunny!!

And took in the view before dinner.

Then we went to dinner at this gorgeous hotel right down the street. If you were planning a trip to Little Switzerland with kids, etc. - I would suggest staying here.

They do have tv, a/c and a pool. The views? AWESOME! They had weddings there both Friday and Saturday.

As for my dinner selection? Trout with pecans.

Yesterday we got up and prepared for another day of hiking.

We headed to Crabtree Meadows off the Parkway where we some more wildflowers.

We hiked a 3 mile hike to Crabtree Falls. I had done this hike before and really wanted Kelli to see the falls.

There were a ton of people at the falls. Families, couples, even the Ranger ventured down there to check things out.

And.. poochies. This little Pom was cooling off. Just for you Sass...

The hike out of the falls was a little sweatier than we experienced the day before but we survived.

I'm happy to report that we did not have any bear sightings but I did learn a lot about them and we know they were on some of the trails that we were on.

That's for tomorrow's post.

This is it for today.

Back to reality and the heat of Charlotte. Boohoo!!