13 Aug

Bear Lake Reserve – Half I • Kath Eats

We spent last week at Bear Lake Reserve in western North Carolina. Proper right here is the first of three recaps of our journey along with the place we stayed, the lodge, and lake life.

Wait a second, this isn’t Bald Head Island?! We pivoted our family journey from the seaside to the mountains on the ultimate minute when Hurricane Debby threatened laborious rain and wind all via our time scheduled on Bald Head. We went as far south and west as we’d that made driving inexpensive and to get out of the path of the storm. Kudos to dad and my sister for pulling it collectively the day sooner than we left!

We made the exact different though on account of we had PERFECT local weather for our week at Bear Lake Reserve! My sister’s buddies advisable it, and what a gem this place is. Proper right here’s the recap of our family journey.

Bear Lake Reserve

Bear Lake Reserve is a mountain resort about an hour west of Asheville, North Carolina. It’s pretty truly within the midst of nowhere surrounding Bear Lake, which is a man-made reservoir. As far as lakes go, this one is on the small facet, nevertheless there was a great deal of space for boating, swimming, and fishing.

Bear Lake Reserve is a sprawling resort with homes, condos, and villas for every full-time homeowners and guests who lease them out like us.

The Bears

There are apparently loads of bears who keep among the many many reserve. We heard there was a family of them on our villa’s porch merely the week sooner than! I was barely scared to go working alone or out after darkish, nevertheless I sadly didn’t see any bears whereas we had been there! Thomas and Mazen observed a family on the easiest way residence from golf.

Getting There

The drive from Charlottesville was about 7 hours with quite a few stops, nevertheless all of us agreed the mountain views made the drive additional good than the drive to the seaside.

There’s a greeter’s cottage when you enter the resort that provides you a pleasing property map correct when you begin to lose cell service! We found the employees to all be so nice and helpful all through your entire resort.

It was a number of 20 minute curvy drive from the greeter’s cottage to our villa, nevertheless the views on the excessive had been worth it!!

Our Villa

We rented Saddle Notch Villa #7 which had engaging views of the mountains and the even the lake. We LOVED the porches!! The villa had 4 bedrooms and a settee/TV/family room that Mazen slept in, so it was the right dimension for us. It was fantastically embellished, stocked, and so good for our fam.

We had a fire pit that was good for s’mores at night time time. It’s shared with totally different villa guests/householders nevertheless we made buddies with some good households in the marketplace!

Groceries

Bear in mind you’ll must pack your complete groceries on account of there isn’t truly a retailer shut by. We launched nearly all of the items we’d have preferred for staples, and ended up doing an Instacart order from the Ingles inside the subsequent metropolis for dinner substances one night time time. We didn’t have an essential experience with our driver who left them on the cottage as an alternative of delivering them, nevertheless the nice staff launched them as a lot as us. The cottage and low retailer do have quite a few points like milk and snacks in case you need some quick points.

First Night Dinner

Breakfast + Lunch with a view

Prepared For The Cousins

My sister and her family didn’t arrive until Monday night time time, so there was quite a bit anticipation for his or her arrival!

Taco Night

We launched taco substances from residence and made them for dinner on night time time 2.

Getting Spherical

We had been barely bummed to hunt out that the hike to the pool and seaside was the reality is a hike, however, many individuals did this 0.8 mile hike/stroll every day. There have been two wooded trails chances are you’ll take or chances are you’ll stroll on the road. Occurring wasn’t harmful, nevertheless creating wasn’t for the faint of coronary coronary heart. It wasn’t harmful with a small backpack, nevertheless you’re not going to want to hold pool gear or coolers up and down, so we frequently had 1-2 cars drive down with the gear and the individuals chosen whether or not or to not go on foot or inside the vehicle.

The doorway to the lower path

Or chances are you’ll stroll on the road. We didn’t let the children go alone.

It was a hike once more up!

The Lodge

A few mile down the mountain is the beautiful lodge! The pool was very good, and the children beloved it! There was a waterslide and scorching tubs, and they also heated the pool on our one chilly day. There was moreover a poolside bar the place we cherished tropical drinks and a few lunches.

There was moreover a well being coronary heart I used quite a few situations, a sauna and steam room, locker rooms and naturally a pleasing restaurant the place we ate twice. They’d loads of little actions for teenagers, nevertheless most of them worth additional so we didn’t end up doing any.

The Lake

The lake was utterly lovely! Mazen and Thomas rented some kayaks on the first day and spent lots of the day fishing. Sadly, they didn’t catch one thing. We didn’t see many fish swimming each (quite a bit to my delight!) so this shouldn’t be an infinite fishing lake. It was lovely for swimming and tubing though.