History and nature bless western North Carolina

We had great weather for our trip to Roan Mountain; the Appalachian Trail crosses most of the Roan's crest with the Roan High Knob Shelter being the highest backcountry shelter on the entire 2,174-mile trail

My parents did great on the sometimes steep walk through the Craggy Gardens; rhododendrons surround this trail but we booked our trip based on historical blooming dates and we're too late this year

Mobile Bunny; Josh Cote made my favorite sculpture at the Grove Park Inn with steel wire on an antique tricycle ($2200)

The former weaving room of Biltmore Homespun Industries in Asheville now houses the antique car museum; the company was famous for its woodcarving, furniture, needlework and homespun fabric

I finished well in the black at Harrah's Cherokee thanks to this deal; a $250 million expansion of the casino is underway which is adding another hotel, exhibition space and a parking garage

The weavers at Biltmore Industries each had their own style so customers would often request their garments be made by a particular person

This IBM employee punch clock is from the early 1900s; Biltmore Industries grew from a small start-up as a craft education program to become one of the largest producers of handwoven wool in the world

The dye house at Biltmore Industries has dye vats on the right and washing machines on the left; the finished cloth was washed for hours with Ivory soap and hot water to pre-shrink and soften the fabric

I'm Hare Now; this whimsical, $3900 sculpture on the grounds of the Grove Park Inn is sure to bring a smile

Bet it didn't have Coke Zero!; famous visitors to the Grove Park Inn-Houdini, Billy Graham (he lived nearby), Edison, Ford, Michael Jordan, Daniel Day-Lewis, Anthony Hopkins, David and Amy Sedaris, Alex Haley, Gershwin, John Denver

Craggy Gardens, on the Blue Ridge Parkway 14 miles NE of Asheville, is covered with purple Catawba rhododendrons in mid-June but they bloomed 2 weeks early this year

Cow; the metal is purposely rusted and then sealed to give it a durable patina; this can be yours for $3200

The view west from Craggy Gardens; most of western NC remains forested with lots of great hikes, including the Appalachian Trail

President and Mrs. Roosevelt were loyal customers of Biltmore Industries; the business thrived until the 1950s, when the economies of modern industrialization usurped the demand for handwoven wool

From the 1920s through the 1940s, Biltmore Homespun was the material of choice for Thomas Edison, Eleanor Roosevelt, Helen Keller, and Grace Coolidge, who had her own signature Biltmore Homespun Coolidge Red yarn

There were many beautiful goldfinch in Cherokee; we saw dozens of elk along with their newborns(from afar) in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Roan Mountain hosts the world's largest natural rhododendron garden; the mountain is clad in a dense stand of Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest and smelled like thousands of Christmas trees

The Grove Park Inn served as a rehabilitation hospital during WW2; during her stay, Helen Keller was given handwoven wool to remind her of her time in Asheville

Mrs. Herbert Hoover with the president of Biltmore Industries on a visit to Asheville; when George Vanderbilt died in 1914, Edith Vanderbilt approached her friend, hotelier Fred Seely who bought Biltmore Industries and moved it to the Grove Park Inn

Roan Mountain lies on the NC-TN border although the town of Roan Mountain is entirely in TN; the 1885 Cloudland Hotel was built on the mountain straddling the state line but closed in 1927

Grovewood Village, where the free Biltmore Homespun Museum is located, is considered by most Ashevillians to be one of the city’s best-kept secrets

Loves Me, Loves Me Not; this $4800 sculpture graces the grounds of the 1913 Omni Grove Park Inn (10 presidents have stayed here)

Ticks were everywhere at Craggy Gardens; despite putting on bug spray, we picked dozens of ticks off after our short walk

Twisted, jagged, rocky crags give Craggy Gardens its name, but these high elevation summits are home to the most spectacular floral display along the 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway corridor