Our unit(s) at Fairfield Forest, Cashiers, NC
Unsure what we wanted to do for a summer vacation, Mark and I picked about a half dozen driveable destinations and put in an exchange request on RCI. We ended up in a timeshare in the Mountains of Western North Carolina, Fairfield Forest in Cashiers.
Our unit(s) at Fairfield Forest, Cashiers, NC
Cashiers is in an area of North Carolina called by some "Sapphire Valley". This is because this area was mined for gems for many years, and many tourist trap type mines still exist, where you can sift through a bucket of dirt and hope to score a real gemstone. While tourists have been known to score real gems, it's rare, and we were just going for relaxation and for fun.
Cashiers is about 45 miles southwest of Asheville, NC, and that was the draw of this area. We think we want to settle (i.e. retire) in this area, and wanted to check it out. We've been here once before (Blue Ridge Mountain Motorcycle Ride, 1998), but wanted to spend some more time.
Upon arriving in the area, we headed for downtown Ashville, where we found a place for a late lunch off Pack Place, at The Noodle Shop. We ate outside (and the temperatures were only in the eighties, so it was wonderfully comfortable) and Mike had a pork and noodle bowl, while I ate homestyle tofu. We'd planned to try the mango and sweet red bean ice creams, but did not end up with enough rooms. Rather than take the fastest way to Sapphire Valley, we decided to head out the Blue Ridge Parkway, and pick up twisty route 191 through the Pisgah National Forest. In late afternoon we arrived in Cashiers.
We found the timeshare fairly easily and quickly after driving down twisty, twisty State Route 64 in western North Carolina. It was actually two units, 1291 A and B. We'd traded for a two bedroom unit, and at this particular resort, that meant two one bedroom units. We'd invited the kids along, but, now grown, they decided they were not interested.
We checked in easily, then headed out to our unit. Upstairs was one unit, with a queen bedroom, full bath, large kitchen, living room with large, sleep sofa and two chairs, and dining room table that can accomodate six. The kitchen was fairly large, and the balcony seated four. The second unit, with an optional connecting door, had a smallish living room with TV, then downstairs a mini kitchen, with table for four, very large bathroom with a shower and jacuzzi tub, and a large king size bedroom with TV and VCR. The balcony had two chairs on it. We spent little time in the downstairs (B) unit, except to luxuriate a bit Sunday evening in the jacuzzi.
Julie went out to buy some groceries, while Mark relaxed. We cooked dinner (Mushroom Pizza) in the unit before catching some cable TV and then hitting the sack.
After eating a few leftover Krispy Kreme donuts for Breakfast, we headed to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park first thing Monday morning. The morning was glorious, although, due to the lack of rain in the area, visibility was pretty low.
Upon arrival, we visited the Visitor Center, got information on trails and some postcards, then visited the pioneer farm. The Pioneer Farm, located next to the visitor center, consists of eight or nine original buildings that reperesent an early Southern Appalachian Farmstead.
A resident of the demonstration farm at Great Smokey Mountains National Park
Complete with animals, including some pigs, chickens and roosters and a horse, the pioneer farm boasts a farmhouse, barn with stables and a large loft, pig area, corral, blacksmith shop, corncrib, and other buildings, as well as fields of corn and sorghum, apple trees, and kitchen and flower and herb gardens. A self-guided trail, complete with interpretive signs, takes you through the exhibit.
Demonstration Farm, Great Smokey Mountains National Park
After walking through the farm, we turned our attention to the nearby mountains, which were certainly living up to their name and were very smokey. A ranger told us that the air quality was very bad that day (indeed the ranger who advised me on hikes, recommended doing lower hikes because the air quality was very bad, and it was warm that day.) The Smoky mountains were even smokier than usual.
The Great Smokey Mountains, living up to their name
We returned to the visitor's center, picked up our car and headed for a picnic area on the way to Clingman's dome, where we ate our packed lunch.
Forest near Clingman's dome. The pines are being killed by an exotic insect.
After lunch we headed for Clingman's dome. This 1/2 mile trail is steep and unrelentingly uphill to the highest point in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. The trail leads through a devastated fir forest. At first we thought that the forest had been burned, but the dead trees did not have any marks of burning. It turns out that an exotic insect, the balsam woolly adelgid, is killing the trees. Currently about 80% of the Fraser Firs in the high reaches of the park are affected, and this is especially obvious around Clingman's dome, which, at 6643 feet is the highest point in the park. This pest came from Europe.
We climbed Clingman's dome, and enjoyed the view, which was limited because of the pollution. Upon returning to the car, we decided to skip more hiking, because of the heat and the air quality, and we headed outside the park to the Cherokee Indian Reservation.
Seventeenth Century Indian Home at Ocontaluftee Indian Village on the Cherokee Reservation.
Our first stop on the Reservation was the Ocontaluftee Indian Village. This attraction recreates Cherokee life as it was lived 250 years ago. We walked through the village on the guided tour, past the recreations of Indian Buildings and Indian craftspeople. We saw weaving, pottery, basketmaking as well as canoe building, woodcarving, including ceremonial facemasks, and the creation of blowguns, which were used for hunting (not for warfare).
Indian Ceremonial Dance Masks
The most interesting were the ceremonial masks which were used for the various dances, and the other woodwork.
Sweat Lodge
We also saw a sweat lodge. This one was an individual one which would have belonged to a family. A larger, tribewide sweat lodge would have also functioned as a hospital. The Cherokee had treament for every illness that they knew of until smallpox came with the White Man.
Tour Guide at Cherokee Dance Ground
A new, very interesting tour guide told us about the Cherokee ceremonial dances. They sat around the dance area on benches that were separated out into seven sections, one for each of the Cherokee clans. You were born into a clan, and if you were a woman you would be a member of it until you died. Men moved into the clan of their wife when they married. Both men and women could participate in all of the dances save one, the eagle dance, which was limited to men.
At the beginning of the dance, the dancers had to enter the dance area, which was considered sacred. Once the dance started, no one could join the dance. There were breaks in the dance (because these dances lasted sometimes for days) when the dancers could leave and come back, but if the dancer left when it was not break time, they could not rejoin the dance.
In the picture above, the guide was showing us the feathers used for the eagle dance. The Cherokee did not use feathers in their regalia except for a very few instances, of which the eagle dance was one.
Display inside Council House, including War and Peace Chief Headdresses.
The official tour of the village ended in the council house, where we were told a lot about Cherokee Culture. The Cherokee had two chiefs, a peace chief and a war chief. In the picture above the red headress was the official headgear of the war chief and the white headress was the official regalia of the peace chief. The third headress (on the left) was the headress used when the peace chief was installed. The peace chief was the main chief, but he could not lead the tribe when it was at war, as war was seen as unclean. Therefore, the war chief, who was sworn to minimize war and collateral damages, would lead during war time.
After we finished the guided tour, we walked through the Indian Gardens, filled with plants that were common to the Cherokee, many of which they had uses for. The interpretive signs explained what they used the various plants for. This was a very interesting stop, and we would highly recommend it (although some of the guides seemed less than enthused about the whole idea.)
After Ocontaluftee, we headed to the Qualla Arts and Crafts center, which had been recommended by our Moon Publications travel guide. I had hoped to get a basket, but the handmade baskets were a bit too expensive for me. We headed back to Cashiers for dinner, eating at the Market Basket, a restaurant in Cashiers. Mark had grilled tuna, and Julie had a scandanavian dish where the diner cooked their own food on a stone that had been heated in an oven for six hours. The entree was a sesame marinated tofu and portobello mushroom combination with some vegetables. It was very yummy and interesting, though Mark's tuna was a tad overcooked. The restaurant also featured live music, a trio of men playing a variety of folky and jazzy music on guitars, mandolin, banjo, string bass and piano. It was very pleasant.
One interesting thing we noticed about dining in Jackson County is that you could not buy wine in a restaurant. However, you could carry it in (in a closed container) and for a fee (usually $2 to $5) you could have it served with your meal at the restaurant.
Whitewater Falls, North Carolina
We decided to take Tuesday real easy, and after a late breakfast of cereal, coffee and orange juice, we decided to head for a local waterfall. We headed south, almost all the way to South Carolina, and visited Whitewater Falls. This waterfall, at 411 feet high, is the highest waterfall east of the Rockies. There is a second waterfall, lower Whitewater Falls, just south of this waterfall in South Carolina. Since that did not have relatively easy access from the road, we did not visit it, but we did briefly drive into South Carolina in order that Julie, who had not been to that state before, could add it to her list of places that she had visited.
We returned to the unit, ate lunch out on the balcony, overlooking the forest (and the golf course) and spent the afternoon just kicking around the unit, watching TV, reading and relaxing.
Biltmore Gargoyle
We woke early the next day, leaving our apartment at 7 AM in order to arrive on time at the Biltmore. We took 64 through Brevard and Hendersonville, then headed north on Interstate 26 and got off at NC 25, into Biltmore Forest. We arrived at the Biltmore around 8:45, just a few minutes after they opened the gates, and headed in.
Biltmore Gargoyles
After arriving, we parked and walked to the main house. We spent the morning touring the house, which was really wonderful. Some of the real highlights for me were:
One side of the workroom for flower arranging in Biltmore Basement.
The most interesting thing in the house, to me, was that it was very people-centered. I've been in a lot of mansions, being an afficionado of American Castles will do that to you, but I have never seen one so completely built around humans.
Most of the spaces in the house provided lovely spots for a handful of people to sit and talk, the sitting rooms, the Winter Garden, the library, all had comfortable chairs arranged in groups that would accomodate a group of six to eight people in conversation.
There were a lot of games available in the house, many recreational activities. So much of the Art was portraiture.
Servant rooms and workrooms were spacious and gracious, comfortably if plainly appointed.
Biltmore seemed to me, more than any other castle I've seen, save only Gillette in Connecticut, to have been built by a man who designed it with the people who would live in and visit it ever in mind.
Flower in Biltmore Conservatory
In addition to a beautiful house, the Biltmore had incredible gardens and greenhouses, and as we would learn later, forests.
Flower in Biltmore Conservatory
Biltmore Gardens
Flower in Biltmore Gardens
Biltmore Gardens
Cool Garden Gate at Biltmore
We were particularly taken with the gates between the gardens.
Clock Tower at Biltmore Winery
We moved on to the Biltmore Winery. This is a contemporary concern. The building was originally the dairy, and not only the Biltmore estate but the surrounding towns were served by the Dairy when Vanderbilt inhabited the house.
Wine Library at Biltmore Winery
In 1985, after a three year renovation, this building was turned into a winery. The Biltmore does not grow most of its own grapes, but they do cultivate some of them. Most of the wines are made from grapes purchased elsewhere. The Library above, with a historical collection of the wines produced by the estate, was very interesting.
After the tour, we headed on into the tasting room, and tried a great number of the wines available. We also did a premium wines and champagnes tasting which had a slight fee. Walked out with a case, it was very good, moderately priced wine.
After all that we opted for an early dinner at the Bistro restaurant at the winery. It was quite wonderful, and we headed back to Cashiers tired and having had a wonderful day.
Fairly early the next morning we were off, in search of more rustic pursuits, but still related to Biltmore. When he'd been building the Estate, George Washington Vanderbilt had been interested in forestry, and in both using the forest that he owned, and in preserving it. So he ended up supporting the birth of forestry in the US.
The Cradle of Forestry is located in the middle of Pisgah National Forest, not far from the Blue Ridge Parkway, and is well worth a visit. They have a museum and information center, including a documentary film about the beginnins of the first forestry school in the US and the German immigrant who ran it. It was very interesting.
One of the cabins where students lived at the Cradle of Forestry
After a quick lunch we caught one of the ranger led hikes through the "Biltmore Campus" a recreation of the original forestry school. (Most, but not all, of the buildings are original, but many of them have been moved. It was a very good followup to the film, and we enjoyed it immensely. We were alone on our tour with a great guide, and we enjoyed it immensely.
There is another hike, called the "Festival Forest Trail", which we did not take.
Lookinglass Falls
Leaving the Cradle of Forestry, we headed back south, stopping at another beautiful waterfall, Lookinglass Falls. Cashiers is situated in the middle of so many beautiful waterfalls and we did not even scratch the surface on this while we were there. Another visit no doubt.
Friday was our checkout day at the timeshare. Our original intent was to spend the day in Asheville, and head on home Saturday. But since we were moving Catherine, our daughter, to college Sunday, and I had been a bit sad earlier in the week over her leaving the nest, we decided to head all the way home on Friday, so I could help Catherine with any last minute packing. So we drove all the way home on Friday.