"Here's to Cisco and Sonny and Leadbelly too
And to all the good people that travelled with you
Here's to the hearts and the hands of the men
That come with the dust and are gone with the wind." B. Dylan
And to all the good people that travelled with you
Here's to the hearts and the hands of the men
That come with the dust and are gone with the wind." B. Dylan
I'm starting this blog to post pictures and to start a lead up to my photography site. Ideally I'd like the blog to be interactive, but I know it's a pain in the arse to sign in to post a comment, and then the comments don't appear unless you click on them. So if you want to comment, have a question, or have a tip for me, either use the comment function on the blog, shoot me an email (cmstephenson@gmail.com), or leave a message on the facebook post. Also, if you're interested in buying a print just email me and we'll work out the details. If you're interested in using an image on a commercial site, also just email me. The pictures posted here are larger than thumbnails, but they are still very low in quality. The actual images will print without distortion up to medium sized prints. And if you have any questions at all, feel free to ask. I have no idea how many people will read or look at this, but it'd be great to hear from you if you do.
Billy and I just spent four days in the Asheville area. It was supposed to be a camping trip and we packed all of our gear into the trunk of the car, but Hotwire hooked us up with a brand new hotel room overlooking downtown Asheville for $109/night, so the camping turned into day hiking. If you're looking for the same deal, it's Hotel Indigo. To book the hotel, just go to hotwire.com and look for 3 1/2 stars in downtown Asheville with a "boutique" attribute (You will see the letter "B" in the descriptive list of the hotel.) Try to get a room that ends in -00 for a corner room that overlooks the mountains or -15 for a corner room overlooking downtown. Below is a picture from our room on the 7th floor.
When I was 16 and 17, at least two or three times each summer some friends and I would trek over to the Brevard area (about 1 1/2 hours southwest of Asheville) to a place called "Bust-your-butt" falls. The falls are still there obviously, but the area is now private property with huge no trespassing signs:
The lower turtleback falls and rainbow falls can still be reached, but you now have to hike 1.5 to 2 miles through the Gorges State Park and into the Pisgah National Forest. The trail in the state park is well maintained and only moderately sloped, but the National Forest trail is primitive, not blazed, and very steep and strenuous in parts. Overall, it's not really that far and I saw a couple of elderly couples on the trail, but I'm not sure they did the steep hike up to the Rainbow Falls lookout. Below are some shots from the hike:
Turtleback Falls
Rainbow Falls
To get here, take I26 East from Asheville to Road 280 toward Brevard. Just east of Brevard, you will merge with US 64 and continue on 64 until it becomes a two-lane very windy mountainous road. You will cross Toxaway Falls (you can get out of your car for a view of the falls) and then continue a little further until you make a left onto 281. The enterance to Gorges State Park will be down on the left. Follow the road back through the park for a couple of miles to reach the parking area for the trailheads. Don't forget to bring some water.
From Gorges, we meandered back through the Pisagh National Forest on US 276. The road is pretty heavily travelled, and while there are places to pull off along the road, most of them are crowded, which sort of defeats the purpose of running to the mountains to get away from it all. We pulled off to a side area and waded down a stream and found some pretty good solitude and a great place to relax for a couple of hours.
One of the best finds of this trip was a place called Limones, which we went to for brunch. It's upscale Mexican in a bistro atmosphere. The food and service were both incredible and the best Cal-Mexican I've had in a very long time. Limones is at 13 Eagle Street. Click here for their website and menu.
Another great find in Asheville, though I've known about this one for a while, is City Bakery. There are two locations at 88 Charlotte Street and 60 Biltmore Ave. Their bread is outstanding and I had the best 'Mater sandwich (with avocado) that I've ever had. Check out their website and menu here.
And if you've been to Asheville before, you probably know about Jack of the Wood, but if you haven't, you'll want to check it out for great food, good beer, and some occasional bluegrass. While there this past time listening to some bluegrass/southern rock, we ran into a local couple whose son is thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail. They were so friendly that they wrote down directions to their mountain cabin so we could park there for easy access to Big Bald on the A.T. Unfortunately, the next morning was not an early one and we opted to search for a waterfall rather than an upward hike, but we look forward to taking them up on their offer another time. Jack of the Wood is located at 95 Patton Avenue and you can see their site with menu and music listings here.
Also, if you haven't checked out Table, you should. It's upscale so it's a little expensive, but the food is incredibly good. Table is located at 48 College Street, and you can check out their site and menu here.
And finally, make sure to check out the Laughing Seed Cafe, an all vegetarian (and mostly vegan) menu that made me think that turning vegetarian wouldn't be all that hard (if there were a lot more restaurants like this one). I had the best gazpacho, best hummus, and incredibly good mushroom enchiladas, and their courtyard is a great place to have a relaxing meal. Laughing Seed Cafe is located at 40 Wall Street and you can see their site and menu here. You can also access the cafe through the staircase up from Jack of the Wood.
The 4th of July, the reason for the trip, fell on Sunday and we watched the fireworks in downtown Asheville. About twenty minutes into the fireworks show, the fireworks suddenly stopped without any sort of finale. We waited for a good 15 minutes until the crowd had drastically thinned and decided to walk toward the bluegrass show we wanted to see. About five minutes later, the finale began, explaining the different viewpoints that I had below. It turns out that one of the fireworks started a small brush fire and it took about 15 minutes for firemen to extinguish it.
Asheville is a pretty incredible small city, and the reason that I think it's so remarkeable is it has diversity in a way I haven't seen in any other city. If it were on the West Coast, I'd think of it as a small San Francisco, but rather than being on the left coast, it's right in the middle of the conservative Bible Belt. Here, diversity doesn't mean gay (though there are plenty), and it unfortunately doesn't mean racial diversity (the city is very white), but it has such a range of people, from progressive vegan hipsters to down-home bluegrass musicians to conservative deeply religious Southerners, but they all seem to tolerate one another in such a sense of calm. It's a very friendly city as well as being family friendly, vegetarian friendly, and gay friendly, sort of a unique combination. If you're new to visiting Asheville, make sure to check out the drum circle every Friday night in Pritchard Park from an unknown time until 9pm. It's a pretty amazing experience whether you just watch from the street, bring a drum, or get into the pit and bounce around.
The final day was supposed to take us up to Big Bald mountain on the AT, but we overslept and wanted to swim in a waterfall, so we opted to head East toward Crabtree Falls. We stopped to do small hikes wherever we spotted a trail and got some solitude and amazing views, along with weather in the 60s. The hike down to Crabtree Falls was pretty quick and isolated and afforded an amazing fall at the end with a small pool to swim in at its base. It's sort of a trek from Asheville, but it's definitely worth it.
To get to Crabtree Falls take the Blue Ridge Parkway to Milepost 339.5 and park in the Camping area (note that the trail does not connect to the picnic area). The hike is moderate and pretty short. We only encountered two other people at the falls, but that was also on a Monday. Does anyone know of any falls that are still secluded? If you know of one, shoot me an email or post a comment - I'd love to learn about any recommendations.
If you have read this far, please let me know what you think about the blog. I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions, tips, whatever. And again, if you want to buy a print or use a print on your site, just shoot me an email. You can reach me at cmstephenson@gmail.com. Thanks for reading and hope you have great travels.
