Pretty much all our vacations are dog friendly vacations these days! We have really grown to love our dog friendly vacations in the Blue Ridge Mountains, especially in the towns of Blowing Rock and Boone.
Following the September, 2024 devastation of Hurricane Helene, there was a lot of damage done in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. We worried that one of our favorite vacation spots had damaged hiking trails and towns beyond repair.
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| Hiking the Boone Fork Trail in 2024, just before Hurricane Helene hit |
It's been difficult finding out the status of some of the Blue Ridge Mountain towns. However, here it is one year later and we decided to take a road trip to see for ourselves how our favorite dog friendly vacation places has been recovering. We were a little nervous. We didn't know if the roads would all be passable, and we worried about the stores, restaurants and hiking trails we loved.
We were so saddened by all the devastation the hurricane had caused, the families impacted have been in our thoughts and prayers all year. We'd seen on the news that homes, businesses, and beautiful forestry had sustained a lot of damage. We were afraid of what we might find when we got there.
Fortunately, we were able to book a room the hotel we like in Boone. The place looked exactly the same, like nothing ever happened!
We ventured out into downtown Boone to take a look around. The town looked great! You'd never know a fierce storm had slammed in just one year ago. Most of the stores and restaurants were still there, only 2 or 3 of them were no longer in business.
After spending the afternoon strolling through downtown Boone we stopped in at the Local Lion, a fabulous local coffee shop we love. I was so happy to see they were still there, and didn't appear to be damaged by the storm.
The next day we drove 8 miles South to check out Blowing Rock, a lovely mountain town we also really love. We tentatively drove down the winding road leading into town, and were quickly met with the quaint houses we always love seeing on the way into town. As we entered Blowing Rock's Main Street, we were met with the familiar riot of gorgeous flowers that line the entire street. This was a sign that things had definitely gotten back to normal! Check out the beautiful flowers in this short video clip:
We parked the car and started to stroll along Main Street. I was delighted to see all the stores and restaurants we love still standing and looking pristine! I spent a couple of hours going in and out of all the quaint stores, admiring the beautiful artisanal crafts and other unique items. Afterwards, we got giant bowls of ice cream at Kilwins - oh how I Love Kilwins ice cream and chocolates!
Next it was time to see if Price Lake and the hiking trails were still intact. Much of the storm damage was along the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is where Price Lake and most of the hiking trails are.
We enjoy kayaking on Price Lake, and we love so many of the hiking trails off the Blue Ridge Pkwy. We were thrilled to see that Price Lake was not only open and totally in tact, but their boat rental area looked like it had a bit of a facelift. We rented kayaks for an hour and had a fabulous time kayaking around the lake!
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| Kayaking on Price Lake, Blowing Rock NC |
Tell me I don't look like the biggest dufus in that hat LOL!! But it was so much fun kayaking. Kayak rentals at Price Lake are reasonably priced, the kayaks are in great shape, and best of all they'll help you in and out of the kayak if you need it. And yeah, we needed it!
After a wonderful morning of kayaking on Price Lake, we headed to our favorite hiking trail in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Boone Fork Trail. Here is where the everything-looks-just-fine sentiment ends. Sadly, there was definitely some damage on the hiking trail.
We parked and headed to the foot bridge that leads to the Boone Fork trailhead and were promptly hit with a warning sign, saying to hike at your own risk due to storm damage.
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| Warning sign at the Boone Fork Trail 2025 |
No, we didn't turn around. We cautiously forged ahead to the trail. It wasn't the spectacular all day hiking event we had come to love on this trail. We hiked for only about 40 minutes, then turned back and called it a day. Here are some video clips of our hike. Although short, we really enjoyed our hike and were glad we went. More importantly, Jessie had a great time! In this video, you can see some damage, but the trail was still fun and largely passable:
We look forward to visiting the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains again soon!
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