A Place Called Robbinsville

About 20 years ago we decided to build a get-away-from-it-all cabin in the mountains of Robbinsville, North Carolina.   We found the land we wanted and then hiked up the mountain until we found the place to build a cabin.  We went up, up and up.  Then, we turned around, looked out over the beautiful view, and said, "This is it."  Several of our family members were with us that day and they all approved.

You can enter the little town of Robbinsville from the north, east, south or west, but no matter which way you enter you must travel over a mountain range to arrive there.  Then when we do arrive,  it is  nice to be welcomed by this pleasant,  "Welcome to Robbinsville" sign,  surrounded by the pretty daylilies.

The below cornfield is in the middle of downtown, which is next to the only Wendy's.  There is now also a McDonald's as well.  I just love to see a cornfield right in the middle of downtown.  Not too many places do that!

 

There are so many beautiful creeks in and around Robbinsville.  This particular one in the below photo, is called Little Buffalo Creek.   It is at the end of our drive-way down from the cabin.  The grandchildren love to play in the creek when they visit.

Robbinsville seems to be becoming more of a tourist town than it was when we first started visiting here.  The beautiful Lake Santeetlah is now surrounded on one side by some amazingly beautiful up-scale vacation homes.

There are several places where one can rent pontoon boats and cruise all around Lake Santeetlah.  When the grandchildren come to visit, we get a pontoon boat, and huge tube that can be pulled on the back of the boat, and they all love to do that and swim in the lake.  The boat rental folks supply you with a map to help navigate that huge lake.

It is always fun to pack a picnic and sit there on the boat having a nice lunch enjoying the beautiful, peaceful  mountain view.

Robbinsville is not too far from the well-known Fontana Lake, and Fontana Village Resort, which is also very close to the Appalachian Trail.  There were a couple of movies filmed in this area:  The movie "Nell" starring Jodie Foster, and the movie "The Fugitive" starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones.

 In this below photo you can see the beautiful Fontana Lake down below.

Sometimes it is fun to grab the camera and just sight-see around to try and capture some of the beauty in the area.

The below photos show several different wild flowers blooming all along the creek banks, and along the mountain roads.  

 This flower looks like a wild Queen Anne's Lace.

Another fun thing to do while visiting Robbinsville, that is if you are adventurous, is to go white water river rafting down the Nantahala River.  Our children and grandchildren (the ones that are big enough) love to go river rafting.  Last year, Will our 12 year old grandson,  fell out of the boat as they all went through the river rapids.

In the below photos, in the back of the boat is the Nantahala River guide.  The others in the boat are two of our daughters, Debi in the front,  Sharon and three of her four sons, John Scott, Preston in the hat, Sharon is just behind Will in the front.  They are now approaching the rapids....Notice how Sharon is smiling .... and then .............

What a difference a second makes!

In the below photo, the next second, there goes Will, our 12 year old grandson, out of the boat!!  Notice the look on his mother's face!  Quite a difference from the above photo.

In the below photo you can see the rapids where the boats come through on the Nantahala River.  They have to navigate through those rocks while the river is flowing so rapidly ... That is where Will fell out.  The Nantahala River Company requires everyone to go through a class where they learn the safe things to do if they fall out of the boat.  Will knew exactly what to do, but it was still scary!

The below photo is one of those lazy, hazy days of summer in the mountains. This is a view from the front porch of the cabin.  If you look right in the middle of the photo you can see a portion of Lake Santeetlah.

There are two very beautiful scenic drives close to Robbinsville.  There is the Charahala Skyway,  and another very popular highway,  The Tail of the Dragon (Hwy 129). 

Charahala Skyway is a 50 mile,  scenic drive heading west out of Robbinsville along the ridge top of the mountains, ending in Tallico Plains, Tennessee.  The highway originally was a Native American trading route before it became a wagon train road for early settlers.

The Tail of the Dragon, Hwy 129,  heading north out of Robbinsville,  has 318 curves along its 11 mile stretch.  This is also a very popular stretch of highway for little sports cars and motorcycles or just anyone who enjoys the beauty all around us.

 

Ahhh! It is so much fun trying to capture some of the beauty all around us with my camera.  Thanks for coming along with us today and please do come back.