Working Well Resources' Blog

By Sue Shekut, Owner, Working Well Massage, Licensed Massage Therapist, Wellness Coach, ACSM Personal Trainer

This May we traveled to Cashiers, North Carolina to scout for locations for future seminars and group trips. One of my clients had told me to travel to Cashiers versus Asheville, NC for great hiking and a more outdoorsy experience. He was absolutely right! I found a great Inn on Trip Advisor. (My favorite travel site. If you don’t know about it, check it out! Similar to Yelp, but for travel, Trip Advisor provides user-generated reviews of hotels, cities, attractions, national parks, etc.)

View from top of Glen Falls, one of 17 area waterfalls near Cashiers, NC. Image by Sue Shekut

We stayed at the Laurelwood Mountain Inn, which is a sweet hotel sitting in the middle of beautiful downtown Cashiers!  “Downtown” Cashiers consists of the Inn, a gas station, a number of restaurants (from the BBQ at the farmers market store to the high-end Italian Restaurant, Horacio’s, to Bucks Coffee House with free WI-FI). There are also some antique shops and other small businesses but it’s mainly a two street town (at the junction of highways 64 and 107).

Farmer's Market in Beautiful Downtown Cashiers, NC, Image by Sue Shekut

The biggest find and a great surprise to us, was that there is a hiking store, Highland Hiker, just 1 block away from Laurelwood Mountain Inn. For a small “town” in the middle of the mountains, it was a shock to find such a large well equipped hiking store. The shop keepers we met were all avid hikers and gave us great service in helping us find new camel backs and hiking gear for our day hikes in the area.

Laurelwood Mountain Inn was a fantastic find. We stayed in one of their “suites” which is really a duplex condo, 2 bedroom, 2 bath with a two-person hot tub in the master bath. (A well deserved treat after hiking all day.) The condo had all the amenities of home with cable TV, a small kitchen (with mini-fridge versus a full size fridge) and was built by the current owner.

Laurelwood Mountain Inn Condo Staircase. Quality craftsmanship throughout. Image by Sue Shekut

The owner of the Inn built a waterfall right outside the door of our cabin (long before we came to stay, of course) along with a  gazebo. Eric, the Innkeeper, told us that the owner’s waterfalls were so popular he got busy building waterfalls for area residents. Now the owner is too busy to run the Inn so he hired the Innkeeper and his wife. After spending time in Cashiers, I could see why people would want to leave the big city and live up in the mountains!

Waterfall outside our suite at Laurelwood Mountain Inn. Image by Sue Shekut

Note: There are a number of vacation rentals in the area for large families and groups. Check out VBRO (Vacation rental by Owner), Trip Advisor or the GoCashiers site here for pics of great homes to rent on nearby Lake Glenville. Cashiers Chamber of Commerce also has a listing for accommodations here. There is also a higher end hotel with a golf course and tennis courts, High Hampton Inn & Country Club.

And, yes, the waterfalls at the Laurelwood Mountain Inn are a lovely but a small replica of the actual waterfalls to be found all around the Cashiers area. There are about 17 waterfalls near Cashiers. We did a day hike to Glen Falls and were not disappointed! It was a very active hike with a fair amount of climbing and many many photo opportunities like this one below!

Descending to the next level of the Falls we were glad to have brought our hiking poles!

Hiking Glen Falls, NC. Image by Sue Shekut

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is only an hour away from Cashiers so we were able to take another day hike to see the actual “Smoke” from along the Great Smoky Mountains. (The “smoke” in the Great Smoky Mountains comes from the mystical blue mist (from water vapors) shrouding its peaks.)

View from Newfoundland Gap Trail in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Image by Sue Shekut

Our last view of the Great Smoky Mountains from Jump Off Point.

Great Smoky Mountains Jump off Point. image by Sue Shekut

Would we go back? As often as we can!