It’s our last day at Brown Mountain Beach Resort and I’m
actually sad to leave. Yes I love and
miss the Gulf but at this place we discovered a little diamond in the rough.
The current owners, Ron & Wendy have been here about
15years-trying to restore this place to its original beauty. They have done a fantastic job with the
cabins which are their main source of income.
They usually have about 30 weddings a summer and what a beautiful place
for a mountain wedding.
The campground is secondary and not a priority-they love
their peace and quiet and if they opened up all 80 spaces that peace and quiet
would be long gone. I respect that about
them-the beauty is worth more to them than the money-rare in today’s world. And beauty – well there is an abundance of it
everywhere you look.
When we checked in, there was one tent camper and one class
C-both left on our 2nd day here.
Another tent camper-son and father, checked in so that left the entire
campground to the 4 of us. Couldn’t get
any quieter and we so enjoy it. No traffic, no radios, no screaming children,
no screaming adults-just Mother Nature.
And on our last day here we were all alone-like our own private resort.
Don’t go without reservations or you will probably be turned
away-I’m serious no fooling around here to negotiate a spot. Be patient, be respectful and reserve if you
can. We count ourselves very very lucky
that we got a reservation to enjoy this secluded spot.
We tubed Wilson Creek several times and what a fun time that
was. The creek ranges from 27feet deep
at the swimming hole off the lodge deck to an average of about 1-2 feet
everywhere else. No class V rapids
here-just swift rolling water that will take you on a swift spinning ride and
sometimes get you hung up on a huge flat rock! I celebrated my birthday here
and it was perfect-tubing on the creek.
Jim tried his luck at fishing several spots and sad to
report he only caught this sweet little sunfish. It is a little late in the season here for
successful fishing-so he tells me.
Ask me what I did besides tubing and a little hiking and a
little jewelry making and I’ll tell you-absolutely nothing-just daydreaming
watching the honey bees on the clover. What a great life we have and we know
how blessed we really are. I remember
all those times in the past struggling with work and schedules and wondering if
life was always going to be such a struggle to find time off together. Well, all that hard work paid off and the
life we could only dream of has come to be.
The only regret is that our family can’t be with us on the road and we
miss them terribly.
So we head out tomorrow morning-not sure where we are going
to end up-we’re pointing towards a spot called Grandfather Mountain-just a
short jog down the road and once we reach that we’ll decide if we head north to
Gatlinburg or continue southwest on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We have 7 days to
get back to Florida for my doctor’s appointment and we will probably wander
slowly south through Georgia to get there. Or maybe we will pick up the Natchez
Trace Trail and go through Mississippi-who knows-remember what they “Not all
who wander are lost “…
Happy Trails my friends
PS. We made a decision on which way to head after spending one night at Devil's Fork State Park. We are heading to North Western Georgia and a place called Cloudland Canyon State Park.
The Cabins at Brown Mountain Beach Resort-so sweet
You could add Blue Ghosts to your bucket list.
ReplyDeleteI just found your blog and enjoyed reading about your adventures. My husband & I also have a Roadtrek RS Adventurous (going on 2 ½ years) and have just retired this year. Now we have more time to travel. You are traveling in our area (Southeast) so will be looking forward to reading about the different places you go. After reading your blog, we’ve added a couple of campgrounds to our bucket list.
I want to tell you about a unique campground in the NC Mountains. Its Ash Grove Resort Cabins and Camping in Brevard, NC. It’s a small campground & the owners are really nice. What is unique about it is, you can hike down a small trail and SEE the Blue Ghosts. Blue Ghosts are a type of firefly that are quite different from the typical fireflies you normally see at night. They usually can be seen mid-May to mid-June. We stayed at Ash Grove 2 years ago for 3 nights and we only saw the Blue Ghosts one of the nights. They were amazing.
You have the regular lightening bugs that come out at dusk. To see the Blue Ghosts, you hike down the trail to where the tent campers are. They come out at about 9:30 (ours came out at 9:30 on the dot). They are smaller than the usual fireflies and they light up and stay lit from several seconds to 20 or more seconds. They hover about 1 foot above the forest floor and just float along. It looks like a ghost is carrying a candle and all you see is the blue flame. Then it flickers out and another ghost lights his candle. There are only a few places you can see them.
Theresa M
Theresa , welcome to retirement ! So glad you enjoy my blog. Now I can't wait to get back to the Brevard area and check out the Blue Ghosts-thank you for sharing that information.
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