What a Grand Day! 🥾 🌲 🦙 Roaring Gap and Deep Gap, NC

After reluctantly leaving Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, we headed to Stone Mountain State Park in Roaring Gap, North Carolina. We arrived at campsite #90 (at the very end of the Park) around 6:00 p.m. - - just before dark. I started cooking dinner. A little unnerving cooking ground beef with the exhaust fan to the outside. I kept imagining a bear twitching his nose, sniffing the air, and possibly making his way to us!

From what I have read, American Black Bears are the only species of bears in North Carolina. They are usually black with a brown muzzle. Females weigh between 100 - 300 lbs, while males range from 200 - 700 lbs. They eat nuts, berries, insects, and occasional small mammals. They can eat up to 20,000 calories a day in autumn to prepare for winter hibernation (approximately December - March). Can you imagine eating 20,000 calories?! 🫢 The American Black Bear can track a scent from 1 - 5 miles away under normal conditions or up to 20 miles away if it is a highly potent odor. They are common in the mountains and eastern coastal plains, preferring thick woods, swamps, and shrub bogs. The American Black Bear tends to avoid humans unless there is food involved or they are protecting their cubs. Despite their size, they can run up to 35 mph! Great respect. 🙇‍♀️ Okay.......back to us. We managed to eat our dinner without any surprise visitors from the woods!

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Stone Mountain State Park in Roaring Gap, North Carolina

Campsite #90

Be Bear Aware!

The next morning we started with a hike to Stone Mountain Falls. We hiked .6 mile in and .6 mile out, plus 300 steps down to the waterfalls and 300 steps back up. It was a beautiful hike that I highly recommend. Sometimes I feel there is no better way to start the day than a peaceful hike.....or walk! After our hike, we drove through the rest of the State Park and headed west on some back roads.

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Hike to Stone Mountain Falls in Stone Mountain State Park

We saw many evergreen farms. The farmers even take advantage of planting on top of mountain ridges! They look well prepared for the Christmas season!

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Evergreen Farms in North Carolina

We winded up in a town called West Jefferson, North Carolina. This is a great town to take a walk. We enjoy the occansional browse through an outfitter store, and West Jefferson has three of them! The town is also home to Ashe County Cheese, which was established in 1930. Visitors can watch the cheese-making process through observation windows. Available to purchase are fresh cheese curds, hoop cheese and wax blocks, candies, taffy, and hand-dipped ice cream. They also have regional treats - - country butter, mountain jams, Amish foods, and North Carolina wines.

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West Jefferson, North Carolina

Did Sasquatch photo bomb our selfie?

For the night, we drove a short distance to a Harvest Host called Land of Milk & Honey Farms in Deep Gap, North Carolina. To support our Harvest Host for our overnight parking, we purchased coffee ice cream, peanut brittle, BBQ jerky, and Sourdough crackers from their two small roadside Gift Shops & Cafe. We said hello to the alpacas and then headed back to our camper. We made beef and cheese burritos with Spanish rice and a salad for dinner. We had some of the coffee ice cream we purchased for dessert. 😋

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Land of Milk & Honey Farms in Deep Gap, North Carolina

This was a grand day! We had started with a hike to a waterfall, took a scenic drive through evergreen farms, browsed West Jefferson, NC, and wound up sleeping next to a creek and alpacas. What more could one want?

Stay tuned to join us for our next adventure!

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