The Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway
Let’s say that you’re in Asheville, North Carolina, and you decide that you would like a dining experience like no other in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Get on the Blue Ridge Parkway and head in the direction of Cherokee, and you’ll experience twenty-five miles of the most spectacular scenery anywhere in North Carolina. You’ll have a leisurely drive with no billboards to obstruct your view, and you’ll pass through seven tunnels as you approach 5,600 foot Mt. Pisgah. Suddenly, giant Douglas Firs will dot the mountainsides, and you’ll think you’re in northern Canada. Brilliant magenta Rhododendron will line the Parkway, and you can stop at any number of scenic Overlooks to take everything in. As you come around a sharp curve at Milepost 408, there it is on your left. You see a rustic two story building nestled amongst the weathered trees and shrubs, so you pull in and find a place to park. Just twenty miles southwest of downtown Asheville, at 5,000 feet, you have found the historic Pisgah Inn, and on a hilltop just past the lodging area, you’ll find an amazing restaurant where you’ll be pearched along a ridge overlooking breathtaking mountains and valleys, and, like the diners who got there before you, you’ll wait for a table along the expansive wall of picture windows, where you’ll be served delicious Southern Cooking by the most attentive team of young people anywhere. You’ll pinch yourself to make sure you aren’t dreaming.
You’re NOT dreaming…
You’ll walk up to one of those windows, and this is what you’ll see…
…unlimited blue ridges toward Looking Glass Rock, with thousands of acres of dense forests, and even on your left, you’ll see the Parkway as it carves a trail around the next bend.
When you’ve finished your meal, you’ll walk out onto a deck just to take it all in…
You’ll ask someone to take a picture with your friends, just to prove to the folks back home, that you were really here…
Then you’ll visit their incredible gift shop where you’ll find the perfect souvenir.
And if you’re lucky, there will be an empty rocking chair where you can just relax and maybe experience one of the best sunsets you’ll ever see.
Wow…….beautiful pictures once again…….I think Brad and I visited the Pisgah Inn once and I remember how beautiful It was around there. Thanks for the pictures and info. Hope you are doing well…….My walking has been reduced to what I can accomplish with a cane. Oh well…..as they say…….”growing old is not for sissies”. Thanks again Patsy
Wow!!! I am so glad I found your site!!!!