George and I took a wonderful trip to the mountains of North Carolina from April 3-5, 2012. We stayed in a fabulous mountain inn, named the Balsam Mountain Inn, in Balsam, North Carolina (which is not far from Waynesville).
The inn is among the oldest in the North Carolina mountains... Construction began in 1905 and was completed in 1908. It was modeled after the Saratoga Inn in New York. It features neo-classical architecture. The three-story building has 46,000+ square feet and 225 windows. A hallmark is the 100-foot, two-tier porch offering splendid views of the Balsams. The inn was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in July, 1982. The inn was renovated beginning in October of 1990.
The 10-foot wide hallways, designed to accommodate huge steamer trunks of guests arriving by rail (nearby), are now filled with art and crafts of more than 75 local artists. Victorian trim accents the interior of the inn.
The 23 acres on which the inn is situated is marked by seven springs. The elevation exceeds 3500 feet. And there are several hiking trails around the area ---where you can see lots of wildflowers this time of year.
And for us, besides a great place to stay and a great restaurant there, this inn was only 1/2 mile from the Blue Ridge Parkway (milepost 443).
Today I will show you some pictures we took of the outside of the inn. In another blog, I'll share some inside pictures... Above is a picture of the inn (and sign) from the bottom of the hill looking up there. Be sure to enlarge the photos for larger pictures.
Here's another cute sign posted on a bench --on the road up to the inn.
Here's a closer view of the front of the inn. The porches (complete with rocking chairs) run the length of the building --on both the 1st and 2nd floors... There is a huge Balsam Fir on the left in this picture.
While walking up on the porch, we saw this sign.
Who is that lady relaxing on the porch????? They have a huge library inside ---so if you forget to bring a good book, I'm sure you can find one. You can rock in the rocking chairs --and just read all day long (unless you are US ---who would rather be out hiking)..... ha
Here's the view from the porch. I would have a hard time concentrating on that book --with this view all around me....
This is a view from the 2nd floor porch looking back at another wing of the inn. The inn restaurant is on first floor (where all of the windows are)... IF the weather had have cooperated, we could have had breakfast and/or dinner outside down there.
Finally, here is one more view from the porch of the beautiful area around Balsam Mountain Inn... If you ever get to this area, check this place out... We got our visit through Groupon online ---and the price was definitely right.
Hope you had a marvelous Easter Weekend. We certainly did!!!!
Have a wonderful Monday.
Hugs,
Betsy
