Student Report by Pia O. on her trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains
One of the biggest advantages of North Carolina is that you have the amazing beaches but also the beautiful mountains close by. One day, me and a couple of friends spent the weekend in the North Carolina mountains. The trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains was absolutely stunning. Although I am originally from Munich and therefore pretty close to the Alps, the mountains here are equally as breathtaking.
The first stop was Mount Mitchell, the highest peak in mainland eastern North America. You have the choice to either walk up there or drive with the car and walk just a couple of minutes to the peak.
The next station was Blowing Rock in Boone. It is literally a rock and you have a beautiful view over the Blue Ridge Mountains. Since it is already September and the temperatures are a little cooler then at the beach, the leaves are starting to change. I hope I’ll be able to go back in October to see all the different colors that fall has to offer.
We continued our little weekend trip on the Blue Ridge Parkway, a beautiful scenic route through the NC mountains. There we stopped a couple of times because there are multiple viewpoints on the way. One of the best shots I took was at Beacon Heights. If you ever go to the mountains in North Carolina, I really recommend you to stop there. Locals told us that this is the most popular overlook. You will have an amazing view all year round.
Afterwards, we continued our journey on Blue Ridge Park way. What we didn’t know was that the weather in the mountains would change quickly. Within seconds we were surrounded by fog. It was so thick that we couldn’t even see the headlights of the car in front of us anymore.
On the one hand it felt a little scary because we didn’t know how long we would drive in the fog and what the road condition would be like. On the other hand, it was kind of spooky and looked like in a movie so that was very interesting. I have never seen fog like this before, especially not during the day.
Finally we ended up in Ashville, another part of the mountains. Ashville has the largest privately-owned house in the America, called Biltmore Estate built in 1889. We didn’t know if we would have enough time to go there but we did. On the side you can see our impression of our visit to Biltmore.
The property is huge. We walked up a little hill to get a better view where you can even see the mountains behind the estate. However, it is also possible to go inside of the estate and visit different rooms. Although the estate was built in 1889, they even had a gym and an indoor pool with lights that I thought was pretty cool.
In one of the rooms you were able to take a picture with George Washington Vanderbilt II who built the Estate.
I wish we had more time in the mountains, but I am pretty sure that we will go back there soon since fall is right around the corner.
