Another GORGEOUS Fall day in Bryson City, N.C.!!! - (Photo taken by Steve from Cullisia Rd - off an Upper Alarka job site.)
Click on the links to go to their websites - but don't forget to come back to Ash Mountain Cabin!
The Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) earns the name. Plenty of hiking trails, your choice of difficulty. Stop & pick up a trail map at ranger stations or visitor centers for $1.
Go for a walk up Deep Creek - one nearby entrance, in Bryson City, to the Great Smokies Park. Locals and tourists alike enjoy hiking up these (mostly) gently sloping trails. Peaceful and beautiful...we appreciate how blessed we are to live in such a place and have this natural resource so close by. (A 20 minute drive will get you to the the Deep Creek entrance to GSMNP.)
Take a hike with American Hikes, Inc.! and experience more of the history and culture of what the Smokies have to offer than you can just by the quick drive-bys that most tourists experience...plus you get some exercise while you do it. Hikes from nature and wildlife to history and ghost tours at night - they've got it all!
Tube down Deep Creek - a favorite summer pasttime for locals and visitors, and the water is COLD when it's hot out!
Blue Ridge Parkway - several access points near Ash Mountain Cabin - from Cherokee to Waynesville to Asheville
Steve looking off from Water Rock Knob, between Cherokee & Waynesville off Blue Ridge Parkway on 4-25-09. Gorgeous 260 degree view, 1/2 mile climb from the visitor center, and over 6000 feet elevation when you arrive!
Cherokee Reservation - Museum, Outdoor Drama (UntoThese Hills - story of the Cherokee removal to Oklahoma,) the living Oconaluftee Indian Village, Qualla Arts & Crafts Co-op
Great Smokies Railroad See the mountains the way folks did in the early 1900s - by rail. GSMR has a variety of dinner trips and trips for children at different times of the year (such as the Christmas favorite, The Polar Express.) Lots to choose from and runs mostly year-round!
Great Smoky Mountains Train Museum is next to GSMR
Harrah's Cherokee Casino the name says it all :)
The Mountain Farmstead Museum at the entrance to the Great Smokies Park in Cherokee
Stecoah Valley Cultural Arts Center
Rafting & outdoor adventure at Nantahala Outdoor Center , Wildwater & other rafting companies
Biltmore Estate - Asheville - 1.5 hours away, but a beautiful drive in a great small city
Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest - one of the few never-logged places left in Western N.C. just past Robbinsville, N.C. (Robbinsville is just under 30 minutes, Kilmer is 25 minutes past Robbinsville - about a 50 minute drive from the cabin) - huge trees, hiking at various levels of difficulty - well worth the drive!
Cherohala Skyway, also in Graham County, near Robbinsville, North Carolina, and very near the Dragon...
"Tail of the Dragon" - a section of US Highway 129, aka Deals Gap, is famous for its 318 curves in 11 miles. Motorcycles and Mini Coopers (& other less impressive cars :) LOVE to strut their stuff on this stretch of road. Not for the faint of heart...Minis on the Dragon - 2009
Gorgeous site with great directions is NC Waterfalls, 
another is Western N.C. Waterfalls - spectacular waterfalls are all over our part of the state (and here is more info about waterfalls in the GSMNP!)
If you are intrigued by the weird and unexplained, take a 45 minute drive up to Judaculla Rock near Cullowhee. Judaculla is a huge boulder with yet unexplained hieroglyphics said to be carved by indigenous folks, maybe pre-Cherokee. (The local legend is that the giant, Judaculla, jumped from the top of a nearby mountain and landed on the rock, leaving his funky footprint embedded in the stone.)
Critters abound, but they are wild and avoid humans for the most part. We should take their advice - and keep our distance as well.
If you hear strange noises at the cabin while you're visiting, don't worry. We have a cardinal who is quite a narcissist and won't leave the windows alone and a very strong raccoon, who keeps trying to carry off the galvanized bucket full of sunflower seeds for the bird feeder.
86% of Swain County's land is non-privately owned (in other words, it's owned by the government) either in the form of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP,) the Eastern Band of Cherokees Reservation lands, Nantahala National Forest, TVA-owned Fontana Lake, etc. Those statistics make this an interesting area for our county government to come up with funding, since property tax payments are only on 14% of the land in the county.
But since 40% of the 1/2 million acres of the GSMNP is in Swain County, of which Bryson City is the county seat, it's a gorgeous place to live...
