My First Visit to Blowing Rock, NC and I Want to Go Back!

It was a last minute decision – “Let’s go somewhere for the weekend!” We knew we wanted to go to the mountains, but where? So I searched the internet for cool mountain cities in North Carolina and Blowing Rock, NC showed up.

After doing a little research on Blowing Rock, we decided that is where we wanted to go and let me tell you, we made a great decision!  Blowing Rock is only about a 2 hour drive from Charlotte, NC so for a weekend visit, the drive wasn’t bad at all.

Did you know?

“Blowing Rock is only 3 square miles yet is home to more than 100 shops, about two dozen restaurants, and nearly 20 hotels and inns.

Blowing Rock was just named “Prettiest Small Town in North Carolina” in a poll of in-state travel professionals and writers.

In 2008 Blowing Rock was named a “Favorite Southern Destination” by readers of Southern Living.”

I will have to agree with those travel professionals and writers – Blowing Rock really is beautiful! And I can see why Southern Living was named a “Favorite Southern Destination” because there was so much to do, in such a small area, that I wish we could have stayed a few more days so we could continue to explore! However, we only had half a day Saturday, full day on Sunday, and Monday, today, it was raining and foggy so we headed home early.

Traveling to Blowing Rock

The drive to Blowing Rock was approximately 2 hours away from Charlotte. It is a easy drive with only the last 20 – 25 minutes feeling like you are driving up a mountain. And it was not a “mountain” road either – it was an easy drive. And the views were spectacular. If I could have just pulled over and started taking pictures I would have, but I don’t think the cars behind me would have appreciated it very much. I was however, able to get some pretty good shots in.

Arriving at Blowing Rock

When you arrive, your first stop should be The Blowing Rock Visitors Center. When we entered, we were greeted by a very friendly staff who gave us the “inside” scoop on certain attractions we wanted to visit. For example, they told us we ought to visit Tweetsie Railroad that day because it was supposed to rain the next day (and it did rain a bit the next day!). We were also given a tip to sit in either the back of car 2 or the front of car 3 when riding the Tweetsie because we would have the best view of the “show”. Well, we sat in the back of car 2 on the Tweestie and they were right! We had awesome seats!

The Blowing Rock Visitors Center also provides maps, brochures of area attractions, as well as a dining guide which gave you an idea of the prices of the local restaurants!

If you want to plan your trip prior to getting to Blowing Rock, visit the Blowing Rock Visitors Center online to find all the information you need and more when visiting Blowing Rock – like attractions, accommodations, entertainments, schedule of events and performances, and you can even request a FREE Visitors Guide!

We tried to fit in as much as possible over the weekend so keep reading this week to find out about our adventures at:

Tweetsie Railroad

The Blowing Rock

Mystery Hill

The Gem Mine

Grandfather Mountain

and the different restaurants we visited!

I can’t wait to go back to Blowing Rock and continue our adventure. Thanks so much to The Blowing Rock Visitors Center for making our trip even more than we expected!