Hi guys! As many of you know we relocated from Florida to North Carolina earlier this year. We settled on the Triangle area so we would have a centralized location to explore the state. This puts us directly in the middle of the state which puts us half way between mountains and the ocean. One of our favorite places to visit is Asheville, which is about 3-4 hours west of us.

Anytime we go we want our visit to be fun, laidback, and rejuvenating. If you love the outdoors and charming small city life Asheville is perfect. Between art, live music, and a flourishing culinary scene Asheville has it all in a small package. Walking the city streets you’ll find niche boutique shopping, street performers and a thriving culinary experience.

End of summer, heading into fall is a great time to visit. It’s a bit cooler up in the mountains but you still have enough of the warm summer breeze during the day to make it very comfortable. The high was 82-84 and low 60-63. A sweater in the evenings was perfect. Every morning watching the heavy fog rolling off the mountains was amazing. Certainly owns the name “Smokey Mountains”. Something about misty mornings just feel extra cozy. It was definitely a whole romantic vibe.

As I said, Asheville is a great place to experience the outdoors. You are within less than an hours drive to countless trails, waterways and camping grounds. On this particular trip we hiked two moderate level trails with amazing waterfalls views that made every step worth it.

Dupont State Forest - Highfalls - 150ft

Dupont State Forest- 3 waterfalls, 7 mile round trip. Multiple paths to choose. The trail we chose was about 3 miles total. There are a total of 86 miles of trails on 10,000 acres of protected land. Incredible. We only went to the High falls. The other two falls we have seen on previous visits and are definitely worth seeing. Sean and I came here when we first got engaged back in 2014. Unfortunately Sandy trail (one of the 3 trails to another waterfall were closed due to recent flooding. The journey to high falls is beautiful, scenic and a great work out at the same time. To get up close to the waterfall you will need to scale some small rocks. There are moments you are going more up hill but nothing too vigorous. Watch your footing and purchase high quality hiking boots.

Upper Whitewater falls- 411ft

White Water falls- Largest waterfall on the East coast of the states. This was a very easy trail with a steep stair case that leads down to a viewing platform with a breathtaking view of the falls Picture above. There is an off trail that works its way down towards the bottom of the falls and along the river. This is 7 miles. After climbing half way down a very steep slope we opted out of this because it was starting to rain and there was no guardrail. If you want a more vigorous hike you would probably love this secondary trail down, weather permitting.

Both of these hikes have waterfalls, scenic heights and trails of varying difficulty. Be sure to get yourself some good hiking shoes. I got mine from Kohl’s but they are also available on Amazon. My hiking shoes

Let’s get to the real important stuff now. I don’t know about you but I love food. If you follow me on Instagram you would know I love sharing culinary delights on my stories. These are a few of the local food and drink establishments we visited on this trip.

Sunny Point Cafe

White Duck Taco shop

Red Ginger Dimsum & Tapas

Itto Ramen Bar & Tapas

Asheville also has a variety of well known breweries. We visited three on this trip.

Wicked Weed Brewery

Wicked Weed indoor & outdoor seating. Full restaurant, downstairs beer bar, bottle shop and the original 15 barrel brewery.

Greenman Brewery

Burial Brewery

Asheville is one of those cities that visit a couple times year now that we are much closer. There is just so many diverse options depending on what you are looking for. If you have been before comment below on your favorite restaurants, activities and hiking spots. Cause we’ll be back!

XO,

Charlene