Expertise North Carolina’s Secret Winter Season

The Rockwellian cities of Highlands and Cashiers get loads of play from spring via fall, however there’s a quieter, equally particular magic right here within the winter.

<p>CAMERON REYNOLDS</p> Best Seat in the House The inviting lobby of Highlander Mountain House, a boutique stay in downtown Highlands.

CAMERON REYNOLDS

Finest Seat within the Home The inviting foyer of Highlander Mountain Home, a boutique keep in downtown Highlands.

It’s little surprise why western North Carolina’s mountain cities seduce us within the spring, summer season, and fall with their siren calls of blooming dogwoods, gentle temperatures, and sensible foliage. The true thriller is why we are likely to neglect these identical locations within the colder months, when there’s a singular attract that blankets the area like a dusting of pure snow. Sure, you’ll possible need to layer up for outside adventures, however it is a nook of the South that’s mastered the restorative artwork of cozy. Right here’s learn how to spend a winter weekend in Highlands or Cashiers, the place you’re positive to discover a heat welcome even when it feels chilly exterior.

<p>&nbsp;CAMERON REYNOLDS</p> Fireside at the Hummingbird Lounge at Old Edwards Inn and Spa.

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Fireplace on the Hummingbird Lounge at Previous Edwards Inn and Spa.

Select Your Base Camp

Solely about 10 miles of winding mountain roads and breathtaking views separate Cashiers and Highlands, however every place has its personal distinct persona. Whilst you ought to plan to go to each, it’s sensible to choose your weekend house relying in your journey preferences.

<p>CAMERON REYNOLDS</p> Easy relaxation at one of High Hampton’s guest cottages.

CAMERON REYNOLDS

Simple rest at one in all Excessive Hampton’s visitor cottages.

Kick Again in Cashiers

Arrive within the coronary heart of Cashiers, and also you’ll end up on the intersection of State 107 and U.S. 64. However not like most proverbial crossroads in life, it is a junction the place there isn’t a unsuitable alternative. Head north on State 107, and also you’ll see Lodge Cashiers, a well-designed low-rise keep that’s inside strolling distance of the village heart. Pop into Zoller Hardware Gift & Gadget Mercantile, which is a veritable establishment the place the motto is “If we don’t have it, you don’t want it.” Then choose up connoisseur pantry staples and fairly dinnerware at Cashiers Kitchen Company throughout the road. Publish up at Slab Town Pizza for chopped salads and creative pies baked with house-made dough, and pattern the native craft beers at Whiteside Brewing Company.

<p>CAMERON REYNOLDS</p> The housemade Southern chocolate cake with salted-caramel buttercream for dessert.

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The housemade Southern chocolate cake with salted-caramel buttercream for dessert.

The drive south on State 107 delivers you to different favourite space institutions. Brookings Anglers outfitters shares all issues for fly-fishing (they’ve a Highlands outpost too). Plus, you’ll be able to guide a full-day float journey with their educated guides to catch trout on the close by Tuckasegee River. Household-owned Chattooga Gardens and nursery can be value a tour, even when you’re not out there for perennial s or shrubs. Settle in for a laidback lunch between stops at The Ugly Dog Pub, which additionally has a location in Highlands. (There’s one draw back of visiting within the winter: The beloved Cashiers Farmers Market is closed for the season, although you’ll be able to all the time declare the spring reopening as a superb excuse to return again.)

<p>CAMERON REYNOLDS</p> A mandarin gimlet at High Hampton.

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A mandarin gimlet at Excessive Hampton.

The jewel in Cashiers’ crown is the not too long ago remodeled High Hampton resort. Whereas it’s solely a five-minute drive from the crossroads, the 101-year-old household retreat feels worlds away, a sliver of mountain-flanked paradise solely its personal. With its bark-sided inn and cottages plus signature crimson rocking chairs, it is a place that appears sentimental and nostalgic even for first-time guests. Initially opened as a seasonal vacation spot in 1922, Excessive Hampton hosted winter visitors for the primary time in 2021 and launched them to the spot’s newest interpretation of considerate hospitality. It’s helmed by the group behind Tennessee’s luxury Blackberry Farm resort.

The century-old inn’s lobby, where guests can settle in by the fireplace with a book.

The century-old inn’s foyer, the place visitors can settle in by the fireside with a guide.

Comfy, unpretentious class is the secret right here: Rustic log mattress frames are topped by wonderful linens and patterned quilts, visitors play playing cards by the foyer’s stone hearth and sip cocktails on the garden’s plush lounges, and the breakfasts and dinners included within the nightly price are scrumptious and creative. Past the spa and year-round tennis courts, the facilities on the resort additionally embody some distinctive to the western North Carolina mountains, like a few protected on-site mountain climbing trails and an 18-hole golf course with peak views. In different phrases, a keep at Excessive Hampton means you don’t have to depart the grounds to seek out journey—and you could not even wish to.

Grasp Out in Highlands

Anchored by pleasant Important Avenue, with its charming church buildings and brick sidewalks, downtown Highlands is a straightforward place to whereas away a brisk afternoon. Lots of its eating places and retailers stay open via the cold-weather months, although their seasonal hours might range. Gasoline up for the day with breakfast at Mountain Fresh Grocery, which serves madeto-order sandwiches and connoisseur to-go meals properly suited to bundled up picnics. Catch Citizen Wilder when it’s open (“Thursday via Sunday and by likelihood!”), and also you’ll uncover a meticulously curated assortment of backyard equipment and residential items, together with domestically made Stick Candles (beeswax tapers and pillars solid from timber). Browse a mixture of girls’s clothes and accessories at Wits Finish, a store that’s been round since 1940.

<p>CAMERON REYNOLDS</p> Four65 Woodfire Bistro and Bar, where pizza is the main event.

CAMERON REYNOLDS

Four65 Woodfire Bistro and Bar, the place pizza is the primary occasion.

Gear up for off-road adventures with a pit cease at Highland Hiker, the place they’re pleased to supply intel about close by trails. Lace your skates for a spin across the downtown ice rink, open from mid-November via early March. Heat up with artisanal pizza at Four65 Woodfire Bistro and Bar; then cap off the day with a stroll via the colourful gallery at The Bascom: A Middle for the Visible Arts.

<p>CAMERON REYNOLDS</p> Sunburst Trout Farms fish at Oak Steakhouse, the restaurant at Skyline Lodge.

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Sunburst Trout Farms fish at Oak Steakhouse, the restaurant at Skyline Lodge.

When it comes time to tuck in for the night time, past the historic and much-loved Previous Edwards Inn and Spa, there are two more moderen additions to the resort scene value trying out. 4 miles out of city, there’s Skyline Lodge, a reimagined Thirties-era stick with an on-site steak home and a comfortable courtyard outfitted with fireplace pits. Downtown, you’ll discover Highlander Mountain Home, an 1885 clapboard farmhouse that was reopened in October 2020 as an 18-room boutique resort that includes a “regionally-influenced” restaurant, The Ruffed Grouse tavern. Due to the imaginative and prescient of proprietor Jason Reeves, the spot itself has turn out to be a vacation spot.

<p>CAMERON REYNOLDS</p> Highlander Mountain House, a carefully renovated 19th-century farmhouse that now hosts guests year-round.

CAMERON REYNOLDS

Highlander Mountain Home, a rigorously renovated Nineteenth-century farmhouse that now hosts visitors year-round.

The atmospheric foyer feels extra like a household lounge, with a wood-burning hearth and a kilim-covered couch so deep you’re given no possibility however to sit down again and calm down. “That’s the heartbeat of this place,” says Reeves. “Each time I come down right here, I see folks from completely different locations putting up conversations…and so they’re all speaking like they’ve recognized one another without end.” The visitor rooms are wrapped in wallpaper and full of little treasures, like domestically made popcorn and classic information. They aren’t overly spacious—and that’s intentional. “You must come to the widespread areas or head exterior and discover,” says Reeves. “I need you to depart after which come again and really feel like that is your respite from the whole lot else. It needs to be the gratifying finish to your journey.

<p>CAMERON REYNOLDS</p> A guest room at the Highlander Mountain House, where design details abound.

CAMERON REYNOLDS

A visitor room on the Highlander Mountain Home, the place design particulars abound.

Enterprise Outside

No matter the place you select to name house for the weekend, Highlands and Cashiers are each gateways to the area’s pure magnificence. Tucked in Nantahala Nationwide Forest on a shared plateau within the Blue Ridge Mountains, spectacular surroundings lies round each flip right here. With colder climate (final yr’s February temperatures typically dipped into the kids and 20s) and the potential for snow, winter is probably not the obvious time to plan a getaway to see mountain vistas. However when you’re keen to tug in your gloves and pack a couple of further layers, you’ll be able to expertise the fun of getting fashionable mountain climbing trails—and their spectacular views—all to your self.

<p>CAMERON REYNOLDS</p> Skyline Lodge, a hotel originally designed by Arthur J. Kelsey, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright.

CAMERON REYNOLDS

Skyline Lodge, a resort initially designed by Arthur J. Kelsey, a pupil of Frank Lloyd Wright.

About midway between Highlands and Cashiers, Whiteside Mountain Nationwide Recreation Path’s 2-mile loop meanders alongside 750-foot cliffs. Not like many hikes that save the views for the hard-earned tip-top, a number of overlooks pepper the trail’s higher portion, so for a lot of the route, you’ll get pleasure from picturesque glimpses of peaks within the distance and the rolling valley under. 4 miles southeast of Cashiers, a family-friendly quarter-mile hike delivers explorers to Silver Run Falls, which plunges 30 toes and infrequently sparkles with ice formations this time of yr.

<p>CAMERON REYNOLDS</p> Silver Run Falls, which is located near Cashiers and can be reached via a short hike.

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Silver Run Falls, which is situated close to Cashiers and could be reached through a brief hike.

Past the much less crowded trails, nature presents its personal reward for individuals who make the journey through the colder months. From mid-February to early March, the solar units behind Whiteside Mountain in such a approach {that a} bear-shaped silhouette emerges. Fittingly dubbed the “Shadow of the Bear,” this seasonal phenomenon is seen from the Large View Scenic Overlook on U.S. 64 between Highlands and Cashiers. Make sure to get there about 45 minutes earlier than sundown so you’ll be able to catch the present.

Just like the bear’s fleeting presence, western North Carolina’s winter wonders are elusive and impermanent. Miss the window, and also you’ll need to return one other yr to expertise them. However that’s a part of the seasonal magic too: Good issues come to those that wait.

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