Book an Antique Log Cabin at this 130-Acre Christmas Tree Farm in Waynesville, North Carolina
Endless rows of Christmas trees and a bluebird sky surround me as I sit by a pond with a dog-eared copy of Paul Theroux's compendium of travel missives, Fresh Air Fiend. Fresh air fiend is right.
It's a Friday in mid-September and I'm at Boyd Mountain Log Cabins and Tree Farm in the North Carolina Smokies. If West Virginia is almost heaven, I have met the angels. Perched from my pondside Adirondack chair on this 130-acre farm, I take in some of the beautiful landscaping, flowers, and more picture-perfect porches than all of Yankeelandia combined. Sure, daytrippers love flocking here to pick up their Christmas trees, but Boyd Mountain also offers some of the best year-round lodging around. With cabins that sleep up to 10, guests can choose from seven hand-hewn log cabins that were built anywhere from 150-to-200 years ago and glint in the afternoon sun with unpretentious charm.
I hear the property is pretty incredible in the winter too, but seeing as I saw more hummingbirds than people over my three-day stay, I'll take shoulder season.
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On Saturday morning, I had big plans to hit the grounds' miles of trails but as soon as my first hiking boot exited the doorway, all was derailed by the beguiling C-curve of my rocking chair. Hiking in Waynesville could wait.
My 340 remaining pages of Theroux's dispatches and the memory-evoking scent of Fraser Firs, could not.
