Things to do / Travel Guide
The southern Appalachian Mountains is a vast region. In all this land, you're bound to come across the unexpected sites and attractions that may be less talked about, but that makes for more excitement on account of the revelation.
Off the Beaten Path in Eastern West Virginia
West Virginia's history is enmeshed with those of logging and the railroad. You can learn about these two topics at the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park in the town of Cass. At this heritage railroad park you can take an antique train, to a ghost town or to Bald Knob, dating to the 1890s. The fact that these are operational is a wonder in itself; the scenes of the mountains and the river and the ghost town are pretty cool, too.
Off the Beaten Path in Western Virginia
How about paying homage to the Natural Chimneys? This regional park is located north of Staunton, south of Mount Solon, on Natural Chimneys Road. There are seven formations in the park, the tallest of which reaches up 120 feet. When an old house collapses and all that's left is the brick chimney - that's what they look like. You can also see other figures in the rock formations, like fairies, or conversely, fortifications in preparation for war.
Off the Beaten Track in North Carolina and Tennessee
West of U.S. Highway 21, parallel to Roaring Gap, you'll find Stone Mountain State Park. This stone mount isn't as well-known as the one outside Atlanta, and there are no figures cut into its façade - maybe it's because they weren't as patriotically Confederate in western North Carolina as they were in Georgia. You can climb to the top of the 2,300-foot-tall mountain, for stupendous views in nearly all directions. There are different trails to the summit, of varying difficulty.
In the town of Flat Rock, North Carolina, southeast from Asheville via I-26, you can visit author-poet Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. He may have made a name for himself as a poet and biographer out in the Midwest, but the last 20 years of his life he spent right here in western North Carolina. The frame house dates to the 1830s, and it's been lovingly restored. Inside, the house is presented exactly (or near-so) to how it would have looked on a typical day when Sandburg lived there. His study is perhaps most impressive, with scattered period magazines for the visitor to eye.
If you're still on I-26, cross the border into Tennessee, head west at Johnson City, and make for the small town of Jonesborough. There's an historic Main Street, and lots of Victorian homes populate the streets around it. You can also admire the number of antebellum churches in the area.
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