Wooly Worm Festival, Banner Elk, NC

[SeaDawg]

Speaking of fall colors, last year the best leaves around Boone and Banner Elk, NC coincided with the annual "Wooly Worm Festival" (October 18-19 this year). http://www.woollyworm.com/

This little fuzzy guy is said to have predicted the weather with his stripes each year, and a "historical accuracy check" (don't know by whom), says he's right 85% of the time... Kind of the fall version of Groundhog Days!

 

Banner Elk is a beautiful little town with fun shopping, great restaurants, a small college, and three nearby ski areas in the winter... Beech, Sugar, and Hawksnet. (Appalachian Ski Resort is close, too, near Boone and Blowing Rock). Besides the town of Banner Elk and the fun little festival, you can camp at Linnville Falls on the BlueRidge Parkway (comfort station, no hookups, no showers,reservations available for some sites) and explore the river, the falls and the Gorge. Nearby Boone, home to three time national football champs at Appalachian State, is another great town to visit. Like many University towns, it's a vibrant and lively community, with the bonus of a small size, and gorgeous mountain scenery....

Do unhook the trailer and leave it at the campground. Many of the roads and highways around Banner Elk and Boone are best explored without a trailer in tow. Roads can be steep and narrow, but reward you with amazing valley and mountain views. Take a drive (and maybe a hike, too) and check out Grandfather Mountain (the highest point in the Blue Ridge Mountains) near Banner Elk and Seven Devils, and a side trip to the artsy little community of Blowing Rock (named for the rock where the strange wind currents will send a dropped paper flying upwards!), a longtime resort in Western North Carolina.

 

We're planning to be in the area for the Wooly Worm Festival if all goes as planned... Maybe we'll see you there!

 

Sherry a photo from the Grandfather Mountain website... http://www.grandfather.com/index.php