A Trip to Highlands

We went to highlands today, what a beautiful drive!  It is a two-lane road that curves and climbs through the mountains, following a Cullasaja River, with many vistas that are both terrifying and mesmerizing at points.
The first amazing site is the powerful, Cullasaja Falls.

Unfortunately, Dry Falls was closed to all visitors; this site has a boardwalk that allows you to "get close and personal" so to speak.  I will have to share that beauty at another time.  However, along the way, there were many other beautiful "no name" spots, this one being a place we have seen many locals swimming in the cool waters in the heat of the summer. 

We then came to Bridal Veil Falls, a fascinating site because you can actually drive under the rock formation. 

I chose to walk instead, and this is what I got to see...

 ...the photo on the left is looking up under the rocks, where the water cascades over the falls...on the right you see the rocks more closely, they are beautiful in-and-of themselves!

We walked along Main Street a bit, looking for a place for lunch.  Interestingly there weren't many places available, and we smelled the inviting aroma of a grill, so we followed our noses to the Mountain Fresh Grocery...a grocery?...they have lunch?...but yes, inside there was The Grill & Deli. 

The atmosphere was a little odd at first, being a grocery store with the grill & deli section off to one side of the store. But as we stood around looking at the menu (I believe looking kind of lost) and trying to decide if this is where we wanted to eat, a friendly patron stated that the burgers were the best in town.  So, we stayed.  And we were very pleased with the delectable burgers and fries.  Not the most nutritious, but come on, we've been eating edible wilds almost every day since we got here! 

As is commonplace in the mountains, people are very friendly and willing to talk about their town, and we (well, really my husband Johny) sparked up conversation with a couple people at the table next to us.  This is Bartlet (daughter) and Pat (mother). 

We talked about this and that; they told us about many spots in Highlands that would be of interest, shared insights about the area, and Pat invited us to go pick Chestnuts from her two trees, (yes, original trees not affected by the blight long ago), in the fall.  They were lovely. 

We headed back toward home, down and around the mountain again, zigging and zagging around the curves.  If you ever get the chance, Highlands is a mountain town you just may want to visit!

Have you ever been there?