Travel Diary: Blowing Rock, NC Part II

On our second day in Blowing Rock we decided to take a hike in the mountains as we both love being out in nature.  There are many sites within the mountains that one could choose for a hike, but we decided on Moses Cone Memorial Park.  The park itself was so peaceful and offered many trails to hike, but before we set off our hike, we went back into town to have a light breakfast.  I got a mini cinnamon roll and iced latte.  I very much enjoyed visiting this cute cafe in town over and over again.  Just like the town itself it was small, cozy and had pretty views all around.

After breakfast we set off to our hiking destination.  I was so happy that we picked this particular park to hike because not only were we surrounded by nature with beautiful views, but the park itself also had a beautiful estate you could visit. The Moses H. Cone Memorial Park preserves the country estate of Moses Cone, a prosperous textile entrepreneur, conservationist and philanthropist of the Gilded Age. In 1901, Cone built Flat Top Manor, the gleaming white 20-room mansion in the grand Colonial Revival style. Seeing this beautiful, gilded age house alone was worth the trip.

The views from the front porch were stunning.  I wouldn’t mind having these views every day.

The inside was just as charming as the outside, but sadly they do not start giving tours until the end of May, but we were able to visit the sections that were opened on the first floor and the gift shop.

After viewing the estate, we went off for our hike.  The hike itself took around two or so hours to complete and at times the trail could get quite steep.  I joked with my husband that the hike was a moderate trail, but not for a girl who lived in Florida the past three years.  We never needed to stop though or take a break due to the exertion, but we would stop occasionally to admire the views.

We also had a little visitor on the trail.  I couldn’t even tell you how long it’s been since I have seen a snail, but I was happy to come across this little happy traveler on our hike.

Luckily, I wore a sweater over my long sleeve workout top because the temperature got much cooler the higher we went and it started to lightly drizzle at one point. But the hike was very rewarding, and the views were simply stunning being that high up.  I will make a return to this park when we inevitably visit Blowing Rock again.

After our hike we went back into Blowing Rock for lunch.  We stopped into this cure seafood place and was happy to see the sun come out as it had been cloudy and rainy most of that day already.

After lunch we stopped back into the cafe for another coffee and walked around main street enjoying the warm sunshine.  I had already stopped into most of the boutiques, so the only one I popped into was an antique store that had many beautiful copper and porcelain pieces on display.

Afterwards we took a walk to the main park and walked around the lake.  The meticulous attention to detail to the plants, flowers and placement of everything was so nice.  I enjoyed just walking the small trail and breathing in the cool mountain air.

We even found a Christmas tree growing in the wild.  This isn’t uncommon in the mountains as they have true-to-form Christmas tree farms that you can visit as well as cut down your own tree.

And this pretty much wraps up our trip to Blowing Rock, NC.  It was a mini getaway that we enjoyed for its beautiful scenery, the fresh, cool mountain air, time in nature, and quiet time to be together.  Visiting a place like Blowing Rock inspired me to slow down and live a little more gently for a few days and I will take that with me back to my everyday life in Raleigh.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s posts on our trip to the mountains.  Tomorrow will be the last post which will basically go over what I packed for our mini getaway and then Friday will be the normal Curated Weekly post.  Have a great day today and a nice long weekend ahead.