Road Trip To Roan Mountain Tennessee To Find Forests Covered In Ice Part 1

Yesterday my husband and I decided to take a long drive. Our 16 month old feel asleep in her car seat after her visit to the pediatrician and we knew if we went home she'd wake up and be grumpy. We both knew that as long as we drove, she'd sleep peacefully. This was when we decided to go on an adventure!

We didn't get much snow where we live but in the far off distance we could both see snow capped mountains that looked beautiful. We decided to drive in the direction of the mountains in the hopes of seeing some pretty views. We ended up traveling pretty far into areas of Tennessee I've never visited before.

In the higher elevations it is cold enough that the snow clings to the trees covering them to make the entire tree appear white. I've never seen this in person but one of my relatives shared some pictures with me featuring this. My husband and I could see mountains that were a bright white and we knew if we drove far enough we would see these ice forests.

My relatives photo of the Tennessee mountains that inspired our trip

See how the snow and ice covers everything to appear like an ice forest?

Snowy mountains in the distance as we started driving

As we got into the mountains, the roads were more curved and the snow was beautiful to see.

Getting closer to the mountains we were seeking

Christmas Tree Farm Country

This area had tons of Christmas tree farms. It was pretty neat to see mountain fields full of Christmas trees covered in snow. They even have a number of places where you can go to pick out the tree you want and cut it down yourself. Funny I've lived only a short time away from here almost my entire life and never knew there were Christmas tree farms nearby.

Roan Mountain, TN and Into North Carolina!

We never intended to leave Tennessee when we started driving. We were surprised when we saw the welcome to North Carolina signs! As we drove we ended up in the town of Roan Mountain but as we continued to explore we drove right over the boarder to NC.

The sign for Roan Mountain, TN states they have a Rhododendron Festival every year. After some research I've decided we need to go to this. If we don't go the festival we need to visit the gardens full of flowers. If you like that sort of stuff here is a link to info about the Rhododendron gardens.

It started snowing as we reached Roan Mountain and passed more Christmas tree farms.

Really neat mural on one of the buildings

I haven't seen a video store in years!

They love their Christmas tree theme

Moose statue

This house is a goner

The town of Roan Mountain was pretty neat. It was small and seemed very old fashioned. There weren't many big name stores and we passed lots of mom and pop local shops and restaurants. As we kept driving we ended up in North Carolina and the roads were horrible! I guess TN works harder to keep ice and snow off the roads because the NC roads were icy! We didn't go too far into NC because a Prius is not a snow vehicle.

We ended up turning around to seek out Roan Mountain National Park where we figured we could find ice forests and lots of pretty sights! Part 2 will come tomorrow...

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