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Cherokee Rock Village
Cliffs at Cherokee Rock Village overlook Weiss Lake in the mountains of Alabama.
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Stumphouse Tunnel
A young couple tours the Stumphouse Tunnel near Walhalla, S.C.
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The Greenbrier
The Greenbrier in West Virginia has been completely refurbished by new owner Jim Justice.
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Dahlonega Gold Museum
The Old Lumpkin County Courthouse houses the Dahlonega Gold Museum in Georgia.
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Coal Mining Tour
Coal mining models move and talk inside Portal 31, a mining tour in Lynch, Ky.
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Deep Creek Lake
Renting a ski boat and tubing are popular activities on Deep Creek Lake in Maryland.
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Biltmore Estate
Biltmore Estate, largest private home in the nation, is a fantasy castle in Asheville, N.C.
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Chattanooga Choo Choo
The Choo Choo exhibit is part of the displays at a sprawling hotel in Chattanooga, Tenn.
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Whitetop Laurel Creek
A bridge spans Whitetop Laurel Creek on the Virginia Creeper Trail, near Damascus, Va.
Writer and travel author Joe Tennis sets out to find a classic must-visit and a tucked-away secret of a destination in each of our nine coverage states. His results, beginning in alabama and following the spring northward, are accompanied here by our 12-month almanac and 50 Great festivals in the states.
Get ready, get set, go – into the mountains of nine states for 18 great getaways:
Alabama Secret: Weiss Lake. Sunshine awakens the shoreline of Weiss Lake just before 5:30 a.m. in Alabama’s Cherokee County. This is the “Crappie Capital of the World.” And in Centre, at the Grid Iron sports bar, known for serving chicken with a white barbecue sauce, that fish is pronounced “croppy” (well, at least when they’re biting), just as the local mountains are called “Appa-lay-chen” (not “Appa-latch-en”).
High above Weiss Lake, upon the rocky crevices of Lookout Mountain, the secluded Cherokee Rock Village boasts craggy, vertical walls of quartz and limestone, rising as much as 200 feet. This site sat in a most primitive state until a few years ago, when moviemakers needed better access to film a rock-climbing scene for 2006’s “Failure to Launch,” starring Matthew McConaughey. “You couldn’t come up during the filming,” remembers 21-year-old Taylor Fells of nearby Gadsden. “The parking lot was overtaken by all of their equipment.”
Today, that village is being developed into a well-manicured park, spanning 200 acres, and Fells keeps climbing the funny-named rocks called Dreamscape, Funwall, Misty and Pinchimney. The same goes for the most affable Byron Agan, a shaggy-haired high school senior who works at the local Piggly Wiggly and willingly demonstrates the monkey-esque art of hanging by your hands.
“Not many places you go have rocks this big that you can climb on,” says the 18-year-old Agan. “Usually the first person who climbs it gets to name it.”
Stony bluffs also mimic high hills on the lawn of The Secret, a nearby bed-and-breakfast with a rooftop swimming pool in Leesburg. Besides the comfy lodge, guest quarters at this spacious home include a cabin comically resembling a jail and a stone cottage called the “Sugar Shack.”
Glen and Marilyn Enlow of Woodstock, Ga., discovered “The Secret” and its breathtaking, bird’s-eye view of Weiss Lake in time to celebrate Marilyn’s 74th birthday. Next, they found a nearby waterfall on Little River Canyon – a popular haunt for well-known Orbix hot glass artist Cal Breed, of DeKalb County, Ala. – before ultimately making their way to Mentone.
Alabama Classic: Mentone. Spring water has been pouring out of the mountains of Mentone since anyone can remember. And, like the fresh smell of spring, the Wildflower Restaurant serves up freshly fine dishes, including tomato pie and sweet potato biscuits, a couple of culinary creations by Ben Keener, the bearded chef at the Wildflower and the husband of the wildflower herself, Laura Catherine Moon. Around this classic Alabama artisan gateway, Laura is known simply as “Moon,” and she’s locally famous for her smile and good humor and her natural way of observing Mentone’s magical message: Slow down, be simple, be healthy.
In other words, it’s what another local chef, Tony Wilson, calls “the Mentone pace.”
Your blood pressure drops as soon as you discover Mentone, a miniscule village blessed with crafts at its center and the must-see Miracle Pottery on its outskirts, in nearby Valley Head. Mentone is the namesake of a French town with a name that means “musical mountain spring” and lies only a few miles from all the waterfalls of DeSoto State Park.
Visitors have been taking vacations here for well more than a century, and at Mentone’s heart remains a grand dame of those early days: Mentone Springs Hotel, built in 1886 and now operated by Wilson, a laid-back fellow who delights in showing off spacious quarters for overnight stays. Just out of town, more accommodations can be found in a collection of cabins dotting Lookout Mountain – the perfect place to soak up an orange, yellow and even golden sundown.
The Old Lumpkin County Courthouse houses the Dahlonega Gold Museum in Georgia.
Georgia Secret: Gold! All across Georgia, it appears the gold mines of Dahlonega may not really be a secret. A couple of gold mines – Consolidated Gold Mines and Crisson Gold Mine – are still in business. But, hey – did you know that little Dahlonega was the site of America’s first gold rush?
Georgia’s gold fever of 1828 predated California’s run for wealth by 20 years. And, for sure, while most rough-and-tumble prospectors may have packed up their pick-axes for the Pacific coast in the late 1840s, some remained dogmatic for Dahlonega, the site of a U.S. Branch Mint that opened in 1838 and coined more than $6 million in gold before closing in 1861.
“It’s not as well-known as California’s. But the mint is known very well by coin collectors,” says Lynda Bryan, an exhibit guide at Dahlonega Gold Museum, a state park housed in Lumpkin County’s 1836 courthouse. Each day, Bryan tells the gold story while introducing a must-see film and exhibits. She also sells a popular souvenir – chocolate with golden wrappers.
Dahlonega still has the Midas touch. Besides the museum, you can discover more gold at the classy Smith House, a hotel and restaurant that serves family-style feasts of chicken and ham. The Smith House even has its own gold mine: once lost and then found in 2006, during a renovation, and now shown off in a display room with mirrors observing what was once a secret shaft.
Georgia Classic: Blue Ridge. Mayor Donna Whitener walks the streets of Blue Ridge, bragging about that “small-town feel” of items like the Rooster Crossing sign at the center of town. Here, it’s almost as common to see roosters named Red and Fred crossing the roads as it is to hear the whistle blow on the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway, often departing Blue Ridge on train excursions.
But, what makes this downtown district of North Georgia and its mish-mash of intriguing shops such a classic destination might just lie in its name. “When people think ‘Blue Ridge,’ they think mountains,” says Blue Ridge property developer Bo Chance. “And the fact that our town is named that, it’s just kind of dumb luck, I guess.”
Of course, that name has also caused confusion, says Danny Mellman, who runs Harvest On Main, a popular restaurant that serves such tasty treats as a blackened salmon sandwich draped with bacon, lettuce and tomato.
“The name,” Mellman says, like he’s contemplating it. “A lot of it is the name. But, people are confused when they come here because they want to get on the [Blue Ridge] parkway.”
Harvest on Main’s creative lunch and dinner menu complements the bountiful breakfasts of the Serenity Garden Café, also on Main Street, and the flavorful vegetable pizza topped with spinach leaves at Cucina Rustica at Morganton, just outside of Blue Ridge. As well, no trip to Blue Ridge could be complete without picking up some cider, fried pies and as many apples as you can carry at the Mercier Orchards, an operation that’s been steadily growing since 1943.
“We haven’t become this booming metropolis,” says Joe Foster, the marketing manager at Mercier Orchards. “We are still a quaint little town. And we are growing organically.”
A young couple tours the Stumphouse Tunnel near Walhalla, S.C.
South Carolina Secret: Stumphouse Tunnel. You don’t exactly grow cheese. But you must age it, of course, and that’s how the story of the Stumphouse Tunnel fits into Clemson University, long ago, when a doctor decided to temporarily store and age blue cheese in the tunnel, near Walhalla, S.C., based on its high humidity and 50-degree year-round temperature. Such an environment was later replicated by the Clemson Agricultural Center.
Now, that tunnel centers a little-known park, just off S.C. Highway 28, and it stands as a monument to man’s inability to move through a mountain.
Blame a shortage of money. If all had gone as planned, and the bore had actually been a complete 5,863 feet, Stumphouse Tunnel would have been incorporated into a rail system linking Charleston, S.C., to Cincinnati, Ohio. But, in 1859, with only 4,363 feet completed, money ran out – and remained scarce with the onset of the Civil War.
How this became “Stumphouse” might be owed to a tree stump used by Civil War-era bootleggers. Or it could come from a couple that lived in a nearby stump. Or it might be from the legend of Issaqueena, a Creek Indian who hid from other Indians either inside of a stump or on the ledge of a waterfall that now bears her name.
A short trail leads to a viewing platform of Issaqueena Falls, part of the day-use park that also includes the partially finished Stumphouse Tunnel.
“I just think it’s a nice, pretty waterfall,” says 71-year-old David Nichols, a frequent visitor from Brevard, N.C. “You’ve got a combination of this and the tunnel. So you’ve got two attractions. It’s becoming more known, but it’s relatively unknown.”
South Carolina Classic: Oconee State Park. Slipping snakes out of the road might be all in a day’s work for Everett Ernst, the assistant manager at Oconee State Park, spanning nearly 1,200 acres in the upcountry of South Carolina. “You don’t want to get bit by any poisonous snakes,” Ernst says while a copperhead in the road flicks it tongue, almost hissing, as night falls on a Monday in early autumn.
Meeting wild creatures, of course, sometimes becomes part of the experience at Oconee, a Depression-era relic, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the mid-1930s. “We have the old-time park feel,” brags park manager Jo Anna White.
This historic park rests deep among the Blue Ridge foothills, scattered with non-demanding hiking trails plus well-kept cabins, campgrounds, a miniature golf course and picturesque picnic shelters overlooking a couple of lakes, stuffed with bass and bream. Families feel safe, White says, so kids run loose and overnighters get up early in the morning to walk their dogs.
The park also serves as a jumping off point to nearby rivers – the Chattooga and Chauga, hotspots for whitewater rafting and trout fishing.
Wanting to move and groove? Well, you can also swing your partner round-and-round, White says. “Every Friday night, square dancing is a huge thing here.”
Biltmore Estate, largest private home in the nation, is a fantasy castle in Asheville, N.C.
North Carolina Secret: Land of Oz. Truly tucked away, like Toto hiding from Miss Gulch, the remains of the Land of Oz theme park lie hidden atop Beech Mountain, N.C., the site of a ski resort and famous for being the town with the highest elevation in Eastern North America at 5,506 feet.
Here, you can ease on down the Yellow Brick Road during October’s Oz Reunion. Other times of year, you can stay overnight in Dorothy’s House, with its slanted floors and frazzled furnishings – if you’re willing, of course, to take your chances that a tornado won’t hit Kansas.
The Land of Oz staked a claim as one of North Carolina’s top attractions when it opened in 1970. Later abandoned when the park closed in 1980, the site has since been gradually refurbished as an attraction open once a year for the two-day and often sold-out Autumn at Oz, attracting as many as 8,000 a weekend, braving the unpredictable weather of Beech Mountain by the busload.
In 2011, Oz officials reacquired relics from the old park, once stored in the archives of nearby Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C.
Come here to meet Dorothy, the Scarecrow, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion and, of course, both a good and wicked witch – not to mention munchkins. All these characters hang out among trees that bear faces and pointed, tiny castles in the merry old Land of Oz. But, be forewarned: Those witches are ugly – with large hats, black outfits, long noses and, ugh, green skin.
North Carolina Classic: The Biltmore. You could fantasize about living in a castle, see how the better half lives, or just to soak up the architectural grandeur of a European flair. Actually, you can check off all of the above at the one-of-a-kind Biltmore at Asheville, N.C., standing in a class by itself, and still claiming to be America’s largest private home.
“It’s different every day. The house is always beautiful,” says tour guide Marjorie Murphy. “I never come to work where I haven’t seen something different and realized the detail that I never noticed before.”
The wealthy George W. Vanderbilt officially opened the Biltmore House on Christmas Eve 1895 and, a few generations later, it has grown into a classic attraction, frozen in time, showcasing the late 19th-century riches of an indoor swimming pool, a bowling alley, lots of bedrooms, fancy furniture, mammoth drapes and a castle-like setting.
Even so, the modern way to tour the home is with headphones and an audio guide.
Yet it’s not all just about this house spanning 175,000 square feet. The tours of Biltmore extend to gardens and grapes, as the Biltmore Winery and lush landscape provide nearly as much attraction as the castle itself. A season pass grants permission to escape on hiking trails. You can also stay at the hotel and choose to dine in a half-dozen different restaurants. Or, you can simply stand in the mist of the water fountain on the front lawn and gaze at that dreamy castle, with its backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Tennessee Secret: Moonshine. No joke: It took a consortium of three attorneys on the streets of Gatlinburg, Tenn., to figure out how to go into the business of legally making moonshine. Today, those guys call their operation Ole Smoky Moonshine. And, since opening in 2010, their distillery has been bubbling by the barrel, just beyond Gatlinburg’s busy sidewalks.
You have to be old enough, of course, to sample the moonshine made with cherries or concoctions called Ole Smoky Grape Lightnin’, Ole Smoky Peach Lightnin’ and Ole Smoky White Lightnin’.
“And it all starts with local grain from local families,” says business partner and Tennessee attorney Joe Baker. “All the corn is milled locally.”
It’s all made on site as well, and visitors are encouraged to take an up-close gander at this operation, with its curved pipes and copper pots. Funky signs explain the process as you meet behind-the-mash folks dressed in overalls, striving to continue the traditions of your typical great-granddaddy, down in the holler.
By legal standards, what’s made here is considered corn whiskey. “And you have to proof it,” says business partner and attorney Cory Cottongim, 32. “All of our corn whiskey is set at 100 proof. That’s 50 percent alcohol.”
Tennessee Classic: The Chattanooga Choo Choo. Going up, you don’t really want to look down – not while the roller-coaster-style ride of the Incline Railway juts into motion. It pulls you, practically, into your seat, not allowing you to stand up on the way up Lookout Mountain – even if you wanted to. But then, at the end, comes the bonus: a heavenly view of Chattanooga, Tenn.
Trains help define this Tennessee town, if for no other reason than the irresistible popularity of the song “Chattanooga Choo Choo.” And, here, you can visit – and even stay overnight – in a railcar at the Chattanooga Choo Choo, a hotel sprawling near the center of the city. On the outskirts of town, hop aboard the Tennessee Valley Railroad, which celebrated 50 years in 2011 and offers a must-ride journey of about one hour that includes a passage through a tunnel.
As for the Incline, well, it’s a mile-long ride all of its own. With a 72-percent grade, it’s the world’s steepest passenger railway and has been in service since 1895.
The Incline has also been sealed in the bounds of matrimony. Once, a bride and groom rode up the incline, and, by the time they reached the top of the mountain, they were married. Another time, a bride rode down the Incline Railway, like walking down an aisle in a church, and met her groom at the bottom of the mountain.
“I believe it’s a thrill ride for people,” says Incline Manager Matthew Higgins in his office atop Lookout Mountain. “And, if you’re already up here, you pretty much know.”
Coal mining models move and talk inside Portal 31, a mining tour in Lynch, Ky.
Kentucky Secret: Portal No. 31. Zooming into darkness, we first meet an Italian coal-miner inside the damp recesses of Lynch, Ky., and he’s talking about how hard it is to work in the dark but how grateful he is to have a job, even amid the dangers of pulling black gold from a cave-like work environment.
That make-believe miner stands like a greeter in the Portal No. 31 Underground Mine Tour, which zips you through an actual coalmine by railcar. At each stop, watch life-like models, like this Italian man, moving and speaking about various eras of coalmining history – from the early years of using canaries as methane detectors to the formation of unions and the use of modern machinery, replacing the work of many men.
“The miners,” says tour guide Al Fehr. “They talk to you.”
Educational? Certainly.
But, for kids, this could also be a thrill ride at Lynch, one in a trio of the surprisingly charming Tri-Cities that also includes Cumberland and Benham at the foot of Black Mountain along the Kentucky-Virginia border.
Benham boasts the School House Inn – an odd but awesomely comfortable overnight destination, where your room lies inside a handsome school, built in 1926. Pass down the hallway, alongside a long row of lockers.
Then, inside your room, find the hardwood floor and plush furnishings resembling any other great hotel.
Nearby, the region’s commercial center, Cumberland, features the Miners Diner, a nothing-fancy eatery with friendly servers and all-you-can-eat fish and chicken.
Kentucky Classic: Cumberland Gap. Simple versions of history appear to say the great gateway to the west belongs solely to the Cumberland Gap, a passage where Kentucky joins both Virginia and Tennessee.
“This is the original spot where Kentucky began,” says Lucas Wilder, a ranger at the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park in Middlesboro, Ky.
Dr. Thomas Walker discovered the Cumberland Gap in 1750, and famed frontiersman Daniel Boone marked a road through the gap a generation later. Still more decades after that, the gap was paved, and the dangerous highway took on the infamous moniker of “Massacre Mountain,” says Tom Shattack, a retired coal miner and author of a Cumberland Gap guidebook.
Today, a tunnel runs through the mountain, the road has been removed, and the gap inside the national park has been restored, with dirt replicating its original height and native trees planted along its path. “We’ve restored it as well as we possibly can,” Wilder says. “And that allows visitors to have that 1700s-style settlers experience.”
Still, the Cumberland Gap provides only the doorway. The rest of the western migration story belongs to The Narrows, a passage just beyond the Cumberland Gap, leading through Kentucky a few miles further west. “If you didn’t have the Narrows, Cumberland Gap wouldn’t be as significant,” says Carol Borneman, another park ranger. “It’s the two in alignment that make the Cumberland Gap rise in prominence.”
A bridge spans Whitetop Laurel Creek on the Virginia Creeper Trail, near Damascus, Va.
Virginia Secret: Damascus. In nearly all seasons, hikers and bikers mill about Damascus, Va., the self-styled friendliest town on the Appalachian Trail. Situated just above the Tennessee border in southwest Virginia, Damascus hosts the annual Trail Days festival each May, attracting thousands and forming a tent city of party-hearty inhabitants, anxious to toss water balloons during the Hiker Parade and talk about what it takes to chuck it all and head out onto the famous AT.
Here also lies the Virginia Creeper Trail, a 34-mile-long rails-to-trails project with Damascus at its center. Thanks to The Creeper, Damascus has grown from a boarded-up factory town in the early 1990s into a bicycle bonanza; about a dozen businesses now offer bike rentals and shuttles to Whitetop Station for the trail’s 17-mile-long downhill ride.
All the while, Damascus remains refreshingly remote and ringed on nearly all edges by national forest. It is, after all, no sin to savor its trout streams or the 10-foot-high cascade pouring behind the century-old Damascus Old Mill.
“In the spring and summer, the noise of that waterfall is so awesome,” says Fred Leonard, who operates a restaurant and 12-room lodge at the Damascus Old Mill. “You can feel the energy.”
The mill restaurant serves steaks and potatoes and The Mill Pond Platter, brimming with flounder, shrimp, a crab cake and three cheese grits. Still, Leonard knows the tempo of the tiny town and strives to keep it all down-home in Damascus – classy, but not too fancy. “This is such a cool place,” Leonard says. “And, after two or three hours here, you feel chilled.”
Virginia Classic: Monticello. Thomas Jefferson has moved into the digital age. Just beyond the fabled grounds of his famous home, Monticello, on the outskirts of Charlottesville, Va., you’ll find the third president of the United States come alive with displays and videos that speak his words and tell his stories in a recently opened visitors center. It’s all part of reaching the next generation, and that includes the Griffin Discovery Room, a hands-on activity center for children featuring interactive games and gadgets, based on Jefferson’s ideas.
“Jefferson is such a multi-faceted guy,” says Gary Sandling, vice president of Monticello’s visitor programs. “There are all these kinds of interests that people associate with him – wine, gardening, landscape.”
Coming to Monticello, you cannot help but think you’re going to get the “nickel tour” of Jefferson’s famous house. But even the simplest visit is more than that; it’s a rich history lesson. You can, still, go in the lawn to see the classic quick view of Monticello, the home Jefferson designed and had rebuilt, over and over.
Jefferson died here. He’s buried here. And yet, it would appear, with all the statues and paintings and consistently new ways to tell his story, the author of the Declaration of Independence, really, has never left his beloved Monticello.
The Greenbrier in West Virginia has been completely refurbished by new owner Jim Justice.
West Virginia Secret: Blackwater Falls. It’s not easy to reach Blackwater Falls. And maybe that’s a good thing. You have to travel through a course of crooked roads in the Mountain State, whipping around bends and corners and through little towns called Thomas and Davis.
But then comes the perfect payoff: Blackwater Falls, a state park with hiking trails, cabins, canyon views, even a petting zoo with chickens. And while the twisting, turning roads may keep some crowds away, reaching the actual waterfall is easy.
“The view that the public adores is no hike at all,” says Sissie A. Summers, a programming services specialist for West Virginia State Parks.
A tiered trail made of stone and wood finds the five-story-high Blackwater Falls in 214 steps, ending on a wooden platform. That overlooks the picture-perfect cascades, plunging in a canyon graced by blooming rhododendron in mid-July.
Blackwater Falls takes its name from the black color of the water, caused by the tannic acid of fallen hemlock and red spruce needles. And, indeed, it is loud and refreshing – and well worth the drive.
West Virginia Classic: The Greenbrier. Growing up in Lewisburg, W.Va., Darrell Brackenrich could not escape hearing about the Greenbrier Resort or even the rumors of what lay underground – a secret bunker designed to hide members of the U.S. Congress, just in case of a national disaster. “There were always rumors that sporadically went around the communities,” Brackenrich says.
And now?
Well, today, all that’s been declassified, and you can actually tour the bunkers and discover the secrets for yourself, all the while enjoying the elegance of the Greenbrier, an upper-crust resort catering to almost any whim or fancy. It’s been a getaway since the Colonial age, in 1778, when visitors came to this site to soak up sulphur waters in the quest for perfect health.
For years known as White Sulphur Springs, the resort reached a certain prominence by the mid-1800s, attracting editors, judges, ministers and merchants, largely from southern states, all wanting to escape the heat and humidity of lower elevations.
The vacation destination became a regular getaway for presidents. It temporarily morphed into a wartime hospital during the 1940s. And then came the bunker, built as a classified project, just in case the U.S. Congress needed to relocate during a time of war.
Today, the Greenbrier boasts 710 rooms, says Brackenrich, the resort’s director of rooms, and it hosts a particularly busy season of golf during summer months. Other activities also abound, ranging from horseback riding to laser tag – all part of the massive refurbishings carried out by native West Virginian Jim Justice.
“Each employee also makes sure that memories last forever here at the hotel,” Brackenrich says. “We want to captivate them from the very beginning.”
Renting a ski boat and tubing are popular activities on Deep Creek Lake in Maryland.
Maryland Secret: Covered bridges. Red and romantic, each of the three covered bridges of Frederick County, Md., bears an individual character, whether you come here on a bike, in a car or astride a motorcycle. Once, these were called “Kissing Bridges” because it was a tradition that you should kiss your lover as you passed through one.
“It is romantic – yes,” says Christopher Haugh, the scenic byway and special projects manager for the Tourism Council of Frederick County. “It all depends on who you’re in the car with.”
Once, too, there were more - as many as 34 covered bridges in Frederick County.
Now, three remain: the Roddy Road Covered Bridge, north of Thurmont; Loy’s Station Covered Bridge, east of Thurmont; and the Utica Mills Covered Bridge, just outside Utica. All date to the 19th century and are part of public roads. And, starting in Thurmont, after gazing through the covered-bridge-theme crafts at the folksy Mountain Gate Family Restaurant, these bridges make a great tour through the foothills.
Of course, thinking back to the horse and carriage days of covered bridges, it would also be natural to think of carriages. So make a day of it, and stop in Emmitsburg at the Carriage House Inn, a perfect place to pause for a meal on a journey of the Covered Bridges of Frederick County.
Maryland Classic: Deep Creek Lake. By now, three or four generations can be counted among the thousands who have made a splash at Deep Creek Lake, a watery playground in mountainous western Maryland’s Garrett County. Built in the 1920s as a hydroelectric project, the 3,900-acre lake forms a natural escape from the heat of Baltimore or Washington, D.C., or the big cities of Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Fuel up for breakfast with a muffin and a cup of coffee at Traders Coffee House. Later, saddle up at Western Trails, LLC, and oversee the lake from horseback on a grassy plain. Then pig out – literally – at Archie’s Barbeque in McHenry.
Take an afternoon boat tour with Steve Green, the co-owner of High Mountain Sports. Fish for bass or bluegill, or zoom behind a ski boat on a tube. And for dinner? Well, there may be no finer place to find than overlooking the water at the Four Seasons Dining Room at Will o’ the Wisp, one of Garrett County’s oldest continually operating restaurants.
Finally, take a stroll outside Four Seasons. And watch boaters park their pontoons as the sun sets, capping another great day on Deep Creek Lake.
If You Go
ALABAMA
Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce, Centre, Ala. 256/927-8455. www.cherokee-chamber.org
Mentone Springs Hotel, Mentone, Ala. 256/634-4040. www.mentonesprings.com
Miracle Pottery, Valley Head, Ala. 256/645-6863. www.miraclepottery.com
The Secret Bed & Breakfast Lodge, Leesburg, Ala. 256/523-3825.
Wildflower Café & Country Store, Mentone, Ala. 256/634-0066. www.mentonewildflower.com
GEORGIA
Blue Ridge Scenic Railway, Blue Ridge, Ga., 877/413-8724. www.brscenic.org
Cucina Rustica, Morganton Ga., 706/374-7474
Dahlonega Gold Museum State Historic Site, Dahlonega, Ga., 706/864-2257
Dahlonega-Lumpkin County Chamber of Commerce. 800/231-5543. www.dahlonega.org
Fannin County Chamber of Commerce, Blue Ridge, Ga., 800/899-6867. www.blueridgemountains.com
Harvest on Main, Blue Ridge, Ga. 706/964-6164
Mercier Orchards, Blue Ridge, Ga. 706/632-3411. www.mercier-orchards.com
Serenity Garden Café, Blue Ridge, Ga. 706/258-4949
Smith House, Dahlonega, Ga. 800/852-9577. www.smithhouse.org
SOUTH CAROLINA
Oconee State Park, Mountain Rest, S.C. 864/638-5353. www.southcarolinaparks.com
Stumphouse Tunnel Park, Walhalla, S.C. 864/638-4343
NORTH CAROLINA
Biltmore, Asheville, N.C. 800/543-2961. www.biltmore.com
Land of Oz, Beech Mountain, N.C. 800/468-5506. www.autumnatoz.com
TENNESSEE
Chattanooga Choo Choo, Chattanooga, Tenn., 423/408-2401. www.choochoo.com
Chattanooga Convention & Visitors Bureau, Chattanooga, Tenn., 423/424-4430. www.chattanoogafun.com
Incline Railway, Lookout Mountain, Tenn., 423/821-4224. www.ridetheincline.com
Ole Smoky Moonshine, Gatlinburg, Tenn., 865/436-6995. www.olesmokymoonshine.com
Tennessee Valley Railroad, Chattanooga, Tenn., 423/894-8028. www.tvrail.com
KENTUCKY
Benham School House Inn, Benham, Ky., 606/848-3000.
Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, Middlesboro, Ky., 606/248-2817. www.nps.gov/cuga
Pine Mountain State Resort Park, Pineville, Ky., 800/325-1712
Portal 31 Mine Tour and Kentucky Coal Museum, Benham Ky., 606/848-1530. www.tourseky.com
VIRGINIA
Damascus Old Mill, Damascus, Va., 276/475-3745. www.damascusinn.com
Monticello, Charlottesville, Va., 434/984-7500. www.monticello.org
Virginia Creeper Trail, Damascus, Va., 800/628-7202
WEST VIRGINIA
Blackwater Falls State Park, Davis, W.Va., www.blackwaterfalls.com
Greenbrier, White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., 866/534-4435. www.greenbrier.com
MARYLAND
Archie's Barbeque, McHenry, Md., 301/387-7400. www.archiesbbq.com
Carriage House Inn, Emmitsburg, Md., 301/447-2366. www.carriagehouseinn.info
Covered Bridges of Frederick County, Frederick, Md., 800/999-3613. www.fredericktourism.org
Deep Creek Rentals, McHenry, Md., 800/769-5300. www.deepcreekrealty.com
Four Seasons Dining Room at Will O' the Wisp. 301/387-5503. www.willothewisp.com
Garrett County Chamber of Commerce, McHenry, Md., 301/387-4386. www.visitdeepcreek.com
High Mountain Sports, Oakland, Md., 301/387-4199. www.highmountainsports.com
Mountain Gate Family Restaurant, Thurmont, Md., 301/271-4373.
Traders Coffee House, Oakland, Md., 301/387-9246. www.traderscoffeehouse.com
Western Trails, LLC, Oakland, Md., 301/387-6155. www.westerntrails.net
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