Travel Diary - North Carolina

Hiking the mountain our cabin was on.

Hiking Soco Falls.

As some of you may already know I just recently went on a getaway to North Carolina with some friends. It was my first time in the mountains and although I really wish it would've snowed I still enjoyed it.

We stayed in our own private cabin that we booked through Airbnb - totally recommend it! Our cabin was in a small town called Maggie Valley. I thought when I visited the mountains I would want to stay at a resort, but honestly a cabin is the way to go because it's quiet and private. It was a little over half a mile up the mountain, surrounded by trees, and a small creek/waterfall thing in the front - that was probably my favorite part.

For our first full day we went hiking to the waterfalls in my pictures above. Be prepared to get a little muddy and wet at Soco Falls. We also hiked up the mountain that our cabin was on. When you get to the top of the road the cabin is on take a right and just follow the road until you come to an intersection and take the road Dogwood and it will lead you back to where you started. This is about an hour hike.

Our second day we traveled an hour and 15 minutes to Gatlinbrug and then another 20-ish minutes to Pigeon Forge. There are tons of things to do in both of these cities. In Gatlinburg, we rode a sky lift and walked around to some of the shops. There are tons of stores, restaurants, and attractions down the same street as this sky lift including Ripley's Believe It or Not, Gatlin's Escape Games, Tennessee Homemade Wines, Guinness World Records Adventures, Aunt Mahalia's Candies, and so much more! In Pigeon Forge, we visited WonderWorks. It was really fun riding the crazy rides in there. There was this one ride that you had to peddle like a bicycle and it would spin you upside down in a circle.. it was kind of scary, but pretty fun too. Another ride we went on was like a 4D ride in which we were enclosed in this shell thing and it moved us around like we were on the rollercoaster that was playing on a video screen. So many interesting things in WonderWorks. After that we headed to Paula Deen's Family Kitchen. I highly recommend going here the food was amazing! Especially the rolls they serve.. wow! There are tons of other attractions in Pigeon Forge that can be found here.

Another day we drove to Ashville, NC to the outlets to shop. It was only 30-40 minutes away from the cabin. There is also a mall 10 minutes from the outlets. You can also find bowling allies in  Ashville if you want something fun to do.

At night we played a lot of card and board games - mainly UNO. We also cooked dinner almost every night. There are a few general stores near the cabin and the Walmart is a little farther away. We packed most of our food in an ice chest and one of the days we were out we stopped at the Walmart to get a few things like milk and eggs.

The morning we left we stopped at Joey's Pancake House for breakfast. It's one of Maggie Valley's main attractions so expect a wait. They have such a large selection of breakfast foods on the menu - I definitely recommend trying it out.

I'm already planning my next trip to the mountains - possibly Colorado.(; If you have any questions about anything I did or did not mention leave a comment or DM me on Instagram.

xoxo steph