We came to the area to hike to Rough Ridge Overlook. We wanted to start our hike here, but the…read moreparking area was closed. There's a nearby overlook parking where you can walk along the road and get a really nice view of the viaduct. We also hiked from the Stone Rock Parking Area to the visitor center which was nice but didn't have many views. This area is really pretty and visiting in the fall is gorgeous for the changing leaves!

If you're driving the Blue Ridge parkway you must stop near the viaduct to check it out. The views…read moreare amazing and it's even better in the fall.

Cool little piece of Lenoir history…read more You can go there and walk the grounds for free which I highly recommend. It's a beautiful area. If you pay the fee which was $7/person when we went then you will get a guided tour inside the house and learn about the history of William Lenoir, his family and the house he built. I think it's totally worth it if you are into that. Regardless if you do the tour or not it's definitely worth a quick stop to check it out if you are in the area.

Saw a gun and musket but my son got shot and now he looks like a crinkly raisin thanks to you…read more Pic below has his classic catchphrase

Toured the Carter Mansion today ($7 per person) Tours are not everyday. Call Sycamore Shoals, or…read morecheck their Facebook site for tour days, and time. We got to see every room in the house, except the basement, which has wood floors. A painting over the fireplace was pretty cool. It was painted over with white paint years ago, and while the restoration group was taking paint "samples", they realized something was under the white paint, which turned out to be a painting. Only one piece of furniture was original to the house, which was a chair. We checked out the family cemetery, and walked down to the Watauga river which is actually in front of the house. This is the oldest framed house in Tennessee. Interesting piece of history.

This marker is located along the Rivers Street in Jimmy Smith Park. As I'm here about a year after…read moreHurricane Helene and still seeing the devastation it caused, this is particularly interesting. The marker has the same text on both sides. It reads, "In mid-August 1940, a hurricane stalled over western North Carolina, drenching parts of Watauga County with more than 13 inches of rain in the span of three days. Ensuing floods in the county on August 13 caused more than 2,000 landslides, killed 16 people, and destroyed most of the area's bridges. Telephone service was interrupted, all main roads into the county were closed, and Boone was cut off from the outside world for days. "One casualty of the flood was the tracks of the Linville River Railway, a spur line of the East Tennessee & Western North Carolina Railroad ("Tweetsie") between Cranberry and Boone. The eastern terminus of the railroad and its wye turnaround were located 75 yards to the west, with the Boone Depot located in the middle of present-day Rivers Street. Established in 1919, train service to Boone ended permanently as a result of the devastation of the 1940 Flood. The original depot building was demolished in 1976." The marker was erected by Boone Historic Preservation Commission. [Review 1216 of 2025 - 4401 in North Carolina - 24768 overall]

Great little monument in the heart of Elizabethton. I recently stopped here at first since this was…read morea roundabout and then I came back to go buy it again just to go to the covered wagon. This Monument is a staple to the community and the history behind it is absolutely breathtaking. Thankfully there's not a lot of traffic here so you could run over to the monument and read the history behind it. During the winter time this Monument is decorated.

Located on the east side of the river, this tall granite obelisk honors the veterans of all wars. I…read morethought initially that it might have been a Confederate monument, but no. This is all wars from the Revolutionary War to the present date. "Built in honor of all soldiers of Carter County in all wars from the Revolution down to this date, 1912." The base of the Monument was constructed out of river rock that was brought from banks of the nearby Doe River and held together by hand-mixed cement. The base measures about 20 feet and the body of the structure measures about 65 feet high, which was a significant height when built. The top is a single piece that is pyramid shaped. Located in the center of a traffic circle where North Main Street meets South Main Street, it is just across from the old court house. [Review 14961 overall, 463 of 2021, number 264 in Tennessee.]

While visiting in the area we stopped at the Fort Watauga replica at the Sycamore Shoals State Park…read morein Elizabethton, TN near Johnson City, TN. It is located along the Watauga River. Fort Watauga, more properly Fort Caswell, was an American Revolutionary War fort that once stood at the Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga River in what is now Elizabethton, Tennessee. The fort was originally built in 1775-1776 by the area's frontier government, the Watauga Association, to help defend Watauga settlers from Native American (primarily Cherokee) attacks, which were in part instigated by the British. Fort Watauga was originally named Fort Caswell after North Carolina Governor Richard Caswell Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Watauga Sycamore Shoals State Historic Park 1651 W. Elk Avenue Elizabethton, Tennessee FREE Park. Free to view and tour the Fort Watauga, and FREE to tour the Visitors Center. The visitors center was not open when we stopped there but we did walk around the Fort.

Boone is a good, not great, college town. Its not an Athens Georgia, but Id send my kid to…read moreAppalachian State if he wanted to go. Really nice group of eateries, a few "ok" and not so great bars. Great offee shops. Tons of outdoor experiences await nearby. Fun shopping on main street and the Wautaga Co. Farmers Market is fantastic on Saturday mornings. App State is a great school.

"It's not 'Door to Heaven'... is... Stargate." -Dr. Daniel Jackson (played by James Spader),…read moreStargate (1994). I thought for a moment that maybe I had encountered a Stargate. No such luck. This 26 foot diameter circle is by artist Thomas Sayre and weighs a whopping 20 tons. It is "earth-casted" concrete, i.e., a concrete mold created in the ground. Other than a science-fiction movie, it is to evoke Lenoir's roots as a furniture manufacturing city with the water wheels, turbines, and sawmills that put the industrial advancements of Caldwell County on the map. The artwork stands in a small park and you can definitely enjoy it without interruption. And maybe if you stand here long enough, Kurt Russell and James Spader will show up. [Review 15923 overall - 3138 in North Carolina - 1428 of 2021.]

I stumbled across this monstrous, quirky piece of art late one night as I was driving through…read moreLenoir. I was compelled to stop and hang out and look around. I climbed onto it and was tempted to climb to the top but could imagine it collapsing or me falling off and slowly bleeding out at two in the morning, so I thought better of that plan and enjoyed it from below. It's odd and cool and unexpected and one of the reasons I've fallen in love with Lenoir.