A Long Weekend in Boone, NC
The year 2020 has laid waste to many travel plans. We have no plans to hop onto a plane any time soon, but we miss the chance to explore. It’s been a year lacking in novelty; when every day is the same, they begin to blend together.
Joey and I both work desk jobs that transitioned pretty seamlessly into remote work, and we consider our primary responsibility to society to be “Stay home. Don’t make things worse.” I think this is perhaps the lowest bar a crisis like this could possibly require us to clear, so we took (and continue to take) it seriously.
March turned to April turned to May, then June, then July. We started driving out to the middle of nowhere to look at the stars, and those small and surprising breaks in our routine became shining moments of happiness. But I was struggling with nothing to look forward to: no visits home, no trips to plan, no idea if we’d get to celebrate the holidays with our family. Just months stretching ahead, calendars empty, the two of us sharing custody of our one task chair.
This is very clearly heading in one direction, right? We wanted something to look forward to, so we booked a trip. Our favorite car-only trip was our Before Times visit to Asheville. On that trip, we drove many miles up and down the Blue Ridge Parkway. We hiked. We watched clouds move. We were mostly alone. That seemed like something that could translate to the world we live in now. We could just pick a spot further north on the Parkway and meet our need for both novelty and social distance.
We choose Boone, North Carolina. It’s a beautiful little college town adjacent to a ski-resort town called Blowing Rock, which has a cute downtown area that I would have loved to poke around had it not been for the aforementioned pandemic and desire to avoid people. It’s also a region with a locally-sourced seasonal food scene and a thriving beer culture.
During our three-day stay, we were followed by gloom and rain. We lost a whole day of adventuring to dense fog and rain and never got the visibility we enjoyed on our previous visit to the mountains. It gave the trip (and the photos I took) a gloomy, melancholy feel, which wasn’t what we’d had in mind but really suited the year.
Where to stay:
The area is a busy winter ski destination, so there are a lot of homes listed on Airbnb. As we drove around, I also noticed quite a few motels and small ski resorts.
Here’s an Airbnb wishlist of some of the properties we considered in the area. We stayed at OConnor’s Retreat, which was chosen primarily for its generous cancellation policy (again, pandemic) and hot tub. The view from the deck was nice, but we probably wouldn’t choose it again.
While there are a few in-town things to do in Boone and Blowing Rock, the main reason we chose this area was the easy access to the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is free and amazingly maintained. It stretches almost 500 miles from the Great Smoky Mountain National Park all the way to Shenandoah National Park. Hikes and overlooks are marked by mile. Here are a few good ones. Boone touches the Parkway at mile 295:
260.6 Jumpinoff Rocks | An easy mile-long trail leads to the top of for a sweeping view. We got rained out of this one, but it’s supposed to be lovely
264.4 The Lump Trail | A weird little hill. It doesn’t really overlook anything. It’s just a bald hill in an area where most hills have trees
271.9 Cascades Trail | This trail leads to a pretty amazing waterfall and was one of our favorite stops. It’s a lot of wobbly steps to the bottom, but it’s worth it
294 Moses Cone Park | This is a historic estate with huge grounds and lots of hiking trails. A big hike to the top of the fire tower allegedly has amazing views on a clear day. But we were there on an aggressively drizzly day and spent our time wandering the grounds trying to identify the wildflowers. I couldn’t believe how many there were in early fall. There is a shop inside the mansion with local arts, and there were a lot of lovely pieces
302.8 Rough Ridge | This hike is iconic in the area. Our hike after days of rain was muddy and slick, but the views are stunning (and, for me, terrifying). This was my favorite hike of our trip.
304.4 Linn Cove Viaduct | This bridge was completed in 1987, cost $10 million, and was the last section of the Blue Ridge Parkway to be finished. It’s an iconic bridge. No need to go out of your way - if you’re heading south, you’ll drive over it.
316.3 Linville Falls | This is one of the most popular stops on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is actually why we ditched. The hiking trail and overlooks felt like Disneyworld, and almost no one was wearing a mask. It looked beautiful, but it wasn’t worth the risk for us.
320.8 Chestoa View | A very short walk takes you to a beautiful, peaceful overlook. Take in great views for very little effort
344 Mount Mitchell | The highest peak in America east of the Mississippi. You mostly drive up the mountain, then there’s a short hike to the top. There is also a 3/4 mile hike in the Balsam forest that is one of my favorite hikes ever. It smells like a candle
Moses Cone
The Lump, featuring my mom!
Cascades Fall
Rough Ridge
Where to Eat
Even when we’re home, dining out right now is tricky, and we’ve been leaning heavily on take-out. When we dine-in, it’s at restaurants with patios. We tried to stick to these rules on our trip, which meant we didn’t visit some restaurants I think we would have loved. I’m listing the restaurants I have plans to visit if we ever get back to Boone.
I’ll start with the favorite spots we visited:
Stick Boy Bread: This local bread and pastry shop was our first stop when we got into town. We picked up a few loaves of amazing bread and some sticky buns. Stickboy also seemed to provide buns and bread for every restaurant in town, which was a very good thing.
Booneshine: This brewery and restaurant was a happy accident after we couldn’t get reservations at a different restaurant. Come for the beer or for the impressively good food. The pretzel starter was a winner (don’t skip the local honey or the house mustard). The hot honey chicken sandwich was very good. Their flights of beer are really reasonably priced. They have a big outdoor area, and we felt safe eating there.
The Speckled Trout: True to its name, this Blowing Rock restaurant has a fish-forward menu. We ordered take out to round out our foggy day of nothingness. Joey went for the trout po-boy; my mom and I played it safe with burgers, because we weren’t sure how some of the trout dishes would travel. My stepdad wouldn’t recommend the chicken, but he did love the lima bean succotash he got as a side.
Camp Coffee Roasters: No trip is complete without a visit to a fancy coffee shop. When at home, we make our morning drinks ourselves, so it always feels like a treat to get a fancy drink at a local place. This one in Blowing Rock is worth visiting.
Here are the restaurants that made my short list but we weren’t able to visit:
Proper: a Southern restaurant with seasonal menus. I’m most sad we didn’t get to this one, but they aren’t open for dine-in right now, and the timing didn’t work for a take-out night.
Bistro Roca: This is an upscale bistro in Blowing Rock that I would have loved to visit. They’re reservation-only during covid, and none of the times worked for us. There are so many things on the menu I would have loved (they have a whole portion of the menu dedicated to mac n cheese).
The Best Cellar: Had we been in the mood for a nice date night, this would have been the spot.
The Village Cafe: In another universe, the weather cooperated, this place was open for dine-in, and we enjoyed brunch as a family on the patio as a fall breeze shook the leaves. Maybe next time.
Rough Ridge
Joey
