Weekend Getaway: Canada in Carolina

We’re traveling to Canada for our weekend getaway but we won’t have to wait in those long lines at the airport. We’re going to drive and it will only take us 4.5 hours. We’re going to Canada in Carolina. Destination: Roan Mountain on the North Carolina-Tennessee line in Mitchell County just up the road from Bakersville and Jack Dellinger’s grist mill which I blogged about yesterday. You will feel like you’re in Canada when you climb to the top of this rugged mountain at nearly 6,300 feet. The spruce-fir forest and treeless “balds” make for a marvelous landscape. Most of these forests in the southern Appalachians have vanished with the warming of the globe over the last 20,000 years since the ice age. The summit offers an eerie reminder of how tough time and nature can be. You will love the trails here and sweeping flow of grasses. The wind will sing you a haunting melody. Explore the Appalachian Trail which cuts a swath across this majestic mountain. If you keep going into Tennessee you will run into an excellent state park. You can rent a cabin there. Go the other way and you run into Bakersville and Spruce Pine. You may want to wait until next weekend to take this trip. Jack Dellinger will be milling corn and grits next weekend on Cane Creek. That would be a double bonus. Best way to get there is to take I-40 to Marion. Head north on Highway 226 to Bakersville and then 261 to the mighty Roan.