Camping in Boone NC: Part Two - Crabtree Falls

[This is the second half of our camping adventure – click here to read the first half]

After our early start and our long day I was beyond happy to get back to our campsite and get a campfire going in our fire ring. I loved the campsite we were staying in – the stone fire ring, the tree trunk bench and the view were fantastic. The campgrounds themselves (Blue Bear Mountain Camp) had the best restroom facilities I’ve seen at a campground to date and they even had a little separate area for washing you dirty dishes which is one of those things that I’m never quite sure what to do with at other campsites.

We got a bundle of firewood from the owners, which we discovered they chop themselves, and got quite a decent fire going before breaking out the s’mores. I finished reading The Goldfinch in front of the campfire that night (really liked the book by the way) and stayed up watching the embers of the fire burn until the cold wind forced us to seek refuge inside the tent for the night.

That night wasn’t as cold as the night before and we managed to sleep until 8am….hard to do in a tent. Then we made breakfast, packed up camp and headed off for the day with just one rough plan. We would go see Crabtree Falls, unfortunately we (and by “we” I mean the GPS lady Claudia) had a really hard time finding Crabtree Falls and we ended up arriving at “our destination” only to find nothing there. At this point all phone signal and GPS was lost and so we decided to scratch that idea and just head to the Blue Ridge Parkway which was easier said than done, however after managing to drive under the Parkway twice we finally found our way on to it and decided just enjoy the drive.

Would you believe it, after less than 15 minutes driving down the parkway we found Crabtree Falls! Yep google maps was a complete liar and it was nowhere near where we thought it was but we managed to get there in the end. The 2 mile round trip hike to the waterfall was more than worth the effort.

After seeing Crabtree Falls we were initially planning to do at least one other hike that day but tiredness and hunger got the better of us so we drove the Blue Ridge Parkway the rest of the way to Asheville and got lunch in The Laughing Café which I was delighted to learn was a vegetarian restaurant (yay for being able to eat everything on the menu!). We wandered around Asheville for a while and I spotted this cute little yarn shop and loved their Downton Abbey display windows.

We pointed the car in the direction of home and made just one final stop at a Strawberry farm near Chesnee SC where we got a gallon of strawberries to try our hands at making jam. I also got some of their delicious made on site strawberry ice cream and oh man was it good!

The only downside to weekend adventures are the Monday morning struggles to get out of bed.

Comments

[Kathy]

Love the picture of reading the book in front of the camp fire...the falls look great and that strawberry ice cream as well..yum. Go to Rhonda's Hetzel's "Down to Earth" to find out tips on making your jam. Regards Kathy A, Brisbane, Australia

[Kristen @ Glitter and Dust]

Those falls are beautiful! It looks like you had yet another good camping experience. Reading a book in front of the fire looks SO peaceful and relaxing.