21 Top Outdoor Experiences in the Blue Ridge Mountains

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We’ve scoured our seven-state coverage area to come back with three fun destinations for each state.  And—bonus item!—they fit into the old family game of Animal, Vegetable, Mineral.

Remember the old animal, vegetable, mineral game? First you determined “Is it animal, vegetable or mineral?” Then came a lot (lot, lot) of other questions that could only be answered with yes or no. It was like eating sugar grain by grain.

Maybe you’ve played this game during the pandemic. Maybe not. By now, you may have had enough of the word games, the puzzles, the Zooming, and be itching for an adventure, a real going-someplace outdoor adventure. Well, here are some suggestions. Using Animal, Vegetable, Mineral as a basis, we’ve compiled a state-by-state list of outdoor activities. You don’t even have to ask a gazillion questions.

West Virginia

Animal – Does it sky-dance over Hanging Rock Raptor Observatory at Gap Mills? A bird with a six-foot wingspan is hard to imagine until an eagle soars over you. Fast and agile, golden and bald eagles are North America’s largest raptors. The place to observe the autumn raptor migration is from the porches of a little observatory balanced atop Peters Mountain. Volunteer counters usually spot an average 250 bald eagles and 50 goldens during the September through mid-November migration. A mile hike along the ridge leads to the observatory and its 50-mile views.

Vegetable – Can you find Richwood by the smell of this edible? Some say the “Ramp Capital of the World” is renowned for its garlicky spring odor as well as its May Feast of the Ransom ramp dinner. After all, the national association for the pungent allium was organized here. Folks scarf down ramps with beans and cornbread and go head to head competing in the ramp recipe contest. Throughout the Appalachian South—especially West Virginia—ramps are hailed at community suppers and festivals. Collecting ramps for personal consumption is legal in West Virginia’s Monongahela National Forest as long as the harvest is confined to less than 20% of large clumps and a total of one small grocery bag.

Mineral – Was this mined in West Virginia even before coal? Yes, salt mining started 100 years earlier. Now a seven-generation salt producing family in Malden has revived JQ Dickinson Salt Works, tapping into an ancient subterranean ocean and using the sun to crystalize gourmet salt. Salt flavors include West Virginia ramp. Visitors can tour the production campus, including sun-powered drying houses and the old salt well, and partake of Malden Salt Fest in May.

Virginia

Animal – Does this critter make “snow” on Buffalo Mountain in summer? If you see what looks like summer snow peeking through the grass on this Floyd County mountain, look for a rare bug. A tiny female mealybug secretes the waxy, snow-white threads. Buffalo Mountain Nature Preserve is the only place in the world to find the Puto kosztarabi scale insect. The 1,140-acre property is open for day hiking.

Vegetable – Can you see 29 of Virginia’s biggest all in one place? Visiting the Virginia State Arboretum near Boyce is like touring the state fair of trees—you’ll see 29 of Virginia’s biggest, champion trees designated with blue ribbons. The giants of their species include a mountain magnolia, sweet chestnut and mountain silverbell. Visitors can amble among more than 6,000 trees and shrubs, including a third of the world’s pine species, any day of the year.

Mineral – Is this natural wonder hidden on top of a mountain near Abingdon? The sandstone maze at Channels Natural Area Preserve sits hidden in the forest atop Clinch Mountain’s Middle Knob­—elevation 4,208 feet. The deep crevices formed as ice expanded and thawed, fracturing the stone cap over millions of years. What’s left is a walkable, 20-acre spooky, wonderful labyrinth of slots and crevices winding through moss-covered rock.

Tennessee

Animal – Are they blinking love-crazy? Every year in May and June the firefly light show lights up the Elkmont area of the Great Smoky Mountains with the insects’ synchronized mating ritual. The Photinus carolinus species is one of the world’s few to flash in unison, the better to draw in females. Human attendees at the stunning natural event have been limited, but Knoxville offers an alternative: More than 12,000 lights in Market Square will flash in synchrony, mimicking the fireflies from sunset to sunrise through June.

Vegetable – Do Tennesseans really fight with these? People in Tennessee love their state vegetable stewed, grilled, fresh and flying through the air at the annual Grainger County Tomato Festival tomato wars. Each year in late July, vendors sell tomatoes, artists paint tomatoes on cheeks, and folks of all ages pelt each other with too-ripe tomatoes until there’s only one standing at the infamous tomato battles.

Mineral – Is it the largest U.S. lake under the ground? Deep inside a mountain near Sweetwater lies the Lost Sea, America’s largest underground lake and the largest natural lake in the southern mountains. The exact magnitude of Lost Sea is still a mystery. Beneath the 4.5-acre pond, divers mapped another 9 acres of water-filled rooms. Yet the end of the lake has not yet been reached. The Lost Sea cave is open for tours and glass-bottom boat rides year-round.

South Carolina

Animal – Is Jocassee Gorges crawling with them? The remote wilderness in northwest South Carolina boasts more salamanders than anywhere in the world, 64 species. Though the small amphibians operate under the radar because of their nocturnal nature, and subterranean habits, they can be spotted under rocks and along streams, from the dusky “spring lizards” to the rare green salamanders. This is the place to start your ‘mander sighting list. Jocassee Gorges Visitor Center at Keowee-Toxaway State Park has maps and recommendations.

Vegetable – Is this another kind of Southern bell? Rainy Jocassee Gorges supports 60 species of rare plants, including the near-mythical Oconee Bells. Most of the Oconee Bells in the world grow on the gorges’ sides. The sun-shy flower opens its creamy blossoms in March and April, and can be admired in abundance at Devils Fork State Park.

Mineral – Is this really a 40-acre slab of the state’s official rock? Forty-Acre Rock Heritage Preserve is named for a massive granite rock near Kershaw, but it’s actually closer to 14 acres. The preserve that encompasses it shelters several species of rare plants and is considered one of the best birding and wildflower spots in South Carolina.

North Carolina

Animal – Does Brevard go a little nutty over the white one? The white squirrel is Brevard’s natural wonder. Colonies of them frisk among the trees at city parks and the Brevard College campus. Legend says they escaped from a 1949 carnival. Here Groundhog Day spring predictions are made by a white squirrel named Pisgah Pete, and a White Squirrel Festival celebrates the snowy squirrels every Memorial Day weekend. The fest offers a Squirrel Box Derby, squirrel tours and squirrel feeder and photo contests.

Vegetable – Was it grown in Alleghany County? If you buy a real Christmas tree, chances are good it grew in the North Carolina mountains. Alleghany County, champion producer of White House Fraser firs, goes all out for people who come to choose their own trees. Evergreen farm extras for visitors include petting zoos, wreath making demos, Santa stopovers, hay bale movie theaters, hot cocoa and wagon rides to the fields. Customers can borrow bow saws or simply point the pros toward their tree of choice.

Mineral – Can you dig it? Crabtree Emerald Mine gems once sold at New York’s exclusive Tiffany jewelers. Visitors can still dig for overlooked smaller emeralds in the Spruce Pine mine residue; good specimens are unearthed every week. Leased to the regional gem and mineral association, the Emerald Village dig site is available for a daily fee, and prospectors can keep all they find. Besides emeralds, black tourmaline, garnet, aquamarine and golden beryl are found in the dumps.

Kentucky

Animal – Do they still roam in Kentucky? You bet they do; Kentucky re-introduced elk to its mountains on reclaimed strip mines 24 years ago. Now the state has the largest elk herd east of the Rockies, and the bulging of bulls echoes over the high meadows in fall. Elk can often be viewed at Begley Wildlife Management Area near Harlan, designated viewing areas near Hazard, and also at Jenny Wiley State Resort Park and Buckhorn Lake State Resort Park, where naturalists lead tours.

Vegetable – Is there a hunting season for this delicacy? Morel mushrooms pop from the forest floor when the oak leaves get as big as a squirrel’s ear. In Irvine, Kentucky, this mountain treat rates a Mountain Mushroom Festival each April. There’s a morel market, morel cooking demos, story-sharing by morel hunters, and prizes for finding the most and largest mushrooms. While Kentucky state parks restrict mushroom picking, national forests generally allow harvesting up to a gallon for personal use. The main part of the fungi lie underground, so picking doesn’t harm them.

Mineral – Does it sparkle, does it glow? Mining was and is rough, dangerous work, and so was the strife over miners’ rights to unionize. No. 31 Coal Mine, located in the town of Lynch in “Bloody Harlan” County, saw plenty of trouble above and below ground in the early 1900s at the world’s largest coal camp. Now visitors can walk a bit in miners’ shoes, donning protective mining gear, descending underground in open railcars, looking for “black diamonds” and learning about mining in No. 31 Mine Tours.

Georgia

Animal – Can I take it on vacation? Campers who don’t want to leave their steeds at home can bring them along to the Georgia mountains’ Cloudland Canyon, Fort Mountain, and Don Carter state parks. Offering miles of riding trails, equestrian campsites, annual trail passes, and even some stalls, these parks can accommodate the logistics of horseback vacations. At Georgia’s newest state park, Don Carter, equestrians may join guided trail rides to explore the park’s 12 miles of looping horse trails.

Vegetable – Does it grow wild in Georgia’s mountains? For sure. Blooming from March through August, Georgia’s native azaleas dazzle in yellow, orange, scarlet, pink, orange and white. Some of the best places to find Georgia’s state wildflower are in the mountain state parks and forests, including Cloudland Canyon, Vogel, Brasstown Bald, the eastern side of Blood Mountain and the Appalachian Trail through Tray Mountain Wilderness Area.

Mineral – Does a state park preserve a piece of Georgia’s marble history? More than half of Washington, D.C.’s monuments were hewn of Georgia marble. The Marble Mine Trail at James H. “Sloppy” Floyd Park near Summerville gives a glimpse into a piece of this history. Hikers pass ghostly, vine-covered mining buildings to reach an abandoned marble mine. A small waterfall tumbles three stories into a blue pool beneath a massive rock outcropping at the mine’s entrance. White marble fragments litter the trail, an easy mile hike.

The story above first appeared in our July/August 2021 issue. For more like it subscribe today or log in with your active BRC+ Membership. Thank you for your support!