We spent final week at Bear Lake Reserve in western North Carolina. Right here is the primary of three recaps of our journey together with the place we stayed, the lodge, and lake life.
Wait a second, this isn’t Bald Head Island?! We pivoted our household trip from the seashore to the mountains on the final minute when Hurricane Debby threatened laborious rain and wind in the course of our time scheduled on Bald Head. We went as far south and west as we may that made driving affordable and to get out of the trail of the storm. Kudos to dad and my sister for pulling it collectively the day earlier than we left!
We made the fitting selection although as a result of we had PERFECT climate for our week at Bear Lake Reserve! My sister’s buddies really helpful it, and what a gem this place is. Right here’s the recap of our household journey.
Bear Lake Reserve
Bear Lake Reserve is a mountain resort about an hour west of Asheville, North Carolina. It’s fairly actually in the midst of nowhere surrounding Bear Lake, which is a man-made reservoir. So far as lakes go, this one is on the small aspect, however there was loads of house for boating, swimming, and fishing.
Bear Lake Reserve is a sprawling resort with properties, condos, and villas for each full-time owners and visitors who hire them out like us.
The Bears
There are apparently a lot of bears who reside among the many reserve. We heard there was a household of them on our villa’s porch simply the week earlier than! I used to be a bit scared to go working alone or out after darkish, however I sadly didn’t see any bears whereas we have been there! Thomas and Mazen noticed a household on the way in which dwelling from golf.
Getting There
The drive from Charlottesville was about 7 hours with a couple of stops, however all of us agreed the mountain views made the drive extra nice than the drive to the seashore.
There’s a greeter’s cottage once you enter the resort that provides you with a pleasant property map proper once you start to lose cell service! We discovered the workers to all be so pleasant and useful throughout the entire resort.
It was a couple of 20 minute curvy drive from the greeter’s cottage to our villa, however the views on the prime have been price it!!
Our Villa
We rented Saddle Notch Villa #7 which had beautiful views of the mountains and the even the lake. We LOVED the porches!! The villa had 4 bedrooms and a sofa/TV/household room that Mazen slept in, so it was the proper measurement for us. It was fantastically adorned, stocked, and so good for our fam.
We had a hearth pit that was nice for s’mores at evening. It’s shared with different villa visitors/house owners however we made buddies with some good households on the market!
Groceries
Word you’ll need to pack all your groceries as a result of there isn’t actually a retailer close by. We introduced nearly all the things we wanted for staples, and ended up doing an Instacart order from the Ingles within the subsequent city for dinner components one evening. We didn’t have an excellent expertise with our driver who left them on the cottage as a substitute of delivering them, however the good workers introduced them as much as us. The cottage and occasional store do have a couple of issues like milk and snacks when you want some fast issues.
First Night time Dinner
Breakfast + Lunch with a view
Ready For The Cousins
My sister and her household didn’t arrive till Monday evening, so there was a lot anticipation for his or her arrival!
Taco Night time
We introduced taco components from dwelling and made them for dinner on evening 2.
Getting Round
We have been a bit bummed to seek out that the hike to the pool and seashore was actually a hike, nevertheless, many people did this 0.8 mile hike/stroll day by day. There have been two wooded trails you might take or you might stroll on the street. Taking place wasn’t unhealthy, however developing wasn’t for the faint of coronary heart. It wasn’t unhealthy with a small backpack, however you’re not going to need to carry pool gear or coolers up and down, so we normally had 1-2 vehicles drive down with the gear and the people selected whether or not to go on foot or within the automotive.
The doorway to the decrease path
Or you might stroll on the street. We didn’t let the children go alone.
It was a hike again up!
The Lodge
A few mile down the mountain is the attractive lodge! The pool was wonderful, and the children liked it! There was a waterslide and sizzling tubs, they usually heated the pool on our one chilly day. There was additionally a poolside bar the place we loved tropical drinks and some lunches.
There was additionally a health heart I used a couple of instances, a sauna and steam room, locker rooms and naturally a pleasant restaurant the place we ate twice. That they had a lot of little actions for youths, however most of them value additional so we didn’t find yourself doing any.
The Lake
The lake was completely beautiful! Mazen and Thomas rented some kayaks on the primary day and spent a lot of the day fishing. Sadly, they didn’t catch something. We didn’t see many fish swimming both (a lot to my delight!) so this should not be an enormous fishing lake. It was beautiful for swimming and tubing although.
Dinner on the Lodge
On Tuesday we did an enormous evening out on the lodge. The meals was fairly good!
Coming subsequent: Hive To Desk Dinner and Our Hike + Lake Day
