Mills River, North Carolina

This is the first of a two-part series about exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville, North Carolina. In this first segment, I’m going to take you to some of my favorite spots heading north out of town along one of the prettiest stretches of road not only in the southeast, but arguably, t...

My girlfriend and I have never been to North Carolina, but we have heard so many good things about Asheville and the Blue Ridge Mountains that we were incredibly excited when we got the chance to check it out. We knew that the Blue Ridge Parkway was a famous drive. One full of epic views and scen...

The trail to town concept sounds fancier than it is. For me, it’s actually not an idea so much as it is my stomach getting what it wants. (And it is VERY persistent in that department). I’ll often have a place to eat or drink picked out well before we’ve even arrived at a trailhead. On those rare...

This is the second in a two-part series about exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville, North Carolina. In this segment, I’m going to take you to some of my favorite spots heading south. As I mentioned in the first piece, the Blue Ridge Parkway is a 469 mile stretch of road that connects ...

Looking to escape the cold and head somewhere a little warmer? The Southeast U.S. has a lot to offer from top-notch food joints and cultural experiences to outdoor recreation activities. Here are six places full of charming and vibrant cities, abundant history, unique architecture, beautiful beac...

By now, most of us are familiar with the benefits of parks-they encourage us to get exercise, they help us reduce stress, they foster connections with our communities, etc. But so often when I think of parks I think of the big ones … places like Yosemite and the Grand Canyon … national parks with...

I spend every free moment I can find capturing sunrises, sunsets and the night sky. Follow my road trip guide of the North Carolina mountains to see some of my favorite places through my camera lens.   Sunrise - Waterrock Knob Waterrock Knob isn't known as the place to be for sunrise, which i...

If you’re scratching your head thinking, ‘Greenville, where’s that?’ You’re not alone. It’s long been overshadowed by the southeast’s adventure capital, Asheville, which is only about an hour to the north as well as Atlanta and Charlotte. But in the last several years Greenville has been making a...

I might be partially biased when I say this, but I strongly believe that fall in the Blue Ridge Mountains is as scenic of a place as any in the world.  With lower elevations than other mountain groups in the States, hardwood forest dominates the mountainsides, meaning that nearly every plant expl...

Hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT) has been a dream of mine for the better part of the last 5 years since I first started backpacking. Like most people with this dream though, I am in a career that doesn’t exactly lend itself to taking five to six months off to plod along in the woods on the way t...