Welcome to the Blue Ridge Highlander, a Creative and Comprehensive
Travel and Relocation Guide to the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains.

Now is the time to head to the mountains the colors are beginning to change, the weather is great and festivals are going strong. The Highlander has just started to get our feet wet with a blog, take a look and sign up for the feed, this one is on current happenings and will have many different announcements. We are starting to create blogs with specific subjects and different authors. If you would like to see one with a specific subject that is of interest to you, don't hesitate to let us know publishers@blueridgehighlander.com.

In the meanwhile now is the time for Festivals and Butterflies, join us in the mountains to enjoy the Best the Mountains Have to Offer. While I gather more festival information and best butterfly points of observation, take time to read our feature story on the Migration of the Monarch, it will lift your spirits and start you planning a mountain journey of your own.

Nature's Pilgrimage...the Migration of the Monarch... The autumn season begins their celebration of life as they pursue a natural innate spiritual sense that drives them along a pilgrimage that will eventually carry them across a continent. Before their great journey begins they must partake in a fertility ceremony essential to their future survival...read on....

If you love the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains, you will love the Blue Ridge Highlander, 11 years on-line and getting better every day. We appreciate our readers as well as our advertisers, for all their support and loyalty. Check the Directory of the communities in the Highlander to help you plan your trip or relocation.

The mountains are a great place to spend quality time with your family, friends or that special someone. Breathe fresh air, go for a hike, enjoy the wildflowers and the birds. Wander through the antique shops and art galleries and check out one of the interesting restaurants that are scattered throughout the mountains....What better day is there to Plan a trip to the Mountains.

The point is...life is a vibration, either we sing in tune or we squawk with the negative. Life can bring you joy if you take time every day to count your blessings and sing in tune with faith.....Mrs. Highlander

The links below will help you find all you need to travel, relocate or just enjoy the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains. There is a lot to check out, and a lot more being added every week, so take time to explore the Highlander and learn why so many choose to Escape to the Mountains through the Blue Ridge Highlander.

Gorilla Haven is the world's only private, AZA* certified gorilla holding facility. It was not designed to be open to the public and is still under construction, but owners, Steuart and Jane Dewar, have offered to provide some personal tours to offer a rare opportunity to our friends and neighbors, and to help raise funds for this important project.

Walking tour will include behind-the-scenes of the GH facility, including gorilla villas, habitat, veterinary hospital, food preparation room, administration, and group building. Chances of seeing gorilla residents, Joe and Oliver, are excellent and photography is allowed.

Long before any man ever set foot on the North American Continent, the Black Bear of Northeastern America could often be seen standing upright on its hind legs surveying its territory from horizon to horizon. Masters of their domain, the great Black Bear enjoyed the prosperity of all that the earth had to offer. When the first Native Americans began to appear, they found benefit in revering the Black Bear both as a source of prey and as a spiritual guide. As brothers often do, they disputed over territory. Even with the loss of a bear's life or the life of a native hunter they, chose to live in continual respect of one another, developing a close relationship both in the physical and spiritual world....read on...

Ten Appalachian Black Bear Stories are Now On-line.....Read and Enjoy

Gardens of the Blue Ridge Smoky Mountains

Passing the equinox we once again find ourselves standing in the valley as day by day the earth slowly and miraculously comes alive, like a pot of boiling water it moves from stillness to explosion.

The reawaking of spring in the high country of the Blue Ridge Smoky Mountains is quite unique. In the lowlands of the mountain interior, the first signs of spring follow a horizontal path across the valley, growing ever so slowly as it makes its journey upward along the mountain slopes....read on...

It is a great time to plan a trip the mountains, and the Highlander is the best way to make your decisions on where to go, what to do, where to stay, where to shop and what restaurants to go to.

We have recently added a new "order free brochures and additional information" form to help you make plans for your trip to the mountains for a visit or to move.

Winter is also a good time to look for that perfect mountain getaway or if you are lucky enough to get to move here permanently, the Highlander is the way to find the best Mountain Realtors, Classic Builders or Rustic Builders and beautiful Mountain Developments.

Giants of the Forest.....Scraping the sky beyond the mountains they grace, stand the giants of the old growth forest. Pressing upward, they pursue their life's goal, to live beyond the common practice of time always reaching towards the sky. Obsessively they chase the cycle of seasons, round and round until their internal structure displays an intricate circle of rings. Rings similar to the working order of a great clock, preserving and telling its story along the way. read on.....

Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest......Located just 15 miles from Robbinsville, in Graham County North Carolina, tucked away deep in the Nantahala National Forest and partly in eastern Tennessee, is a rare living national treasure. An ancient, old growth forest of giant trees, untouched by the logging saw. A sanctuary protected and preserved under the Wilderness Act for the enjoyment and the posterity of a people and a great nation..... read on....

Born Alfred Joyce Kilmer on December 6, 1886, this creative soul and devout Christian became a journalist, poet, literary critic, and an editor at the New York Times. Yet, a single poem catapulted Kilmer to notoriety, a 12-line poem expressing his dearest affection for “Trees,” written in the year 1913. Joyce Kilmer's poem was published in 1914 in a collection entitled, Trees and Other Poems....read on....

In 1934, a New York chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars approached the federal government with a petition, requesting that the government honor Joyce Kilmer, a fallen comrade and fellow patriot with a suitable memorial. After discussing the petition with the government, it was decided that an appropriate memorial for the patriot poet would be a tract of virgin forest in the eastern United States......read on....

Fifth in the Series on Primitive Survival...The Lost Instinct of Knowing What to Eat

Have you ever heard that old adage: watch what the animals eat and you'll know what to eat, too? Well, forget it. It's simply not true.

The fact is that there was a time when no one had to teach us what to eat....read on...

If you love the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains, you will love the Blue Ridge Highlander, 11 years on-line and getting better every day. We appreciate our readers as well as our advertisers, for all their support and loyalty. Check the Directory of the communities in the Highlander.

We strive to be the best Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountain Travel and Relocation Guide available, as well as an entertaining and inspiring On-line Magazine.

The links below will help you find all you need to travel, relocate or just enjoy the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains. There is a lot to check out, and a lot more being added this year, so take time to explore the Highlander and learn why so many choose to escape to the Mountains through the Blue Ridge Highlander.

Are you planning to Travel to the Mountains? The Blue Ridge Highlander can help you plan your trip so that you enjoy all that the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains have to offer.

If you are looking to invest into Real Estate in the Mountains, the Highlander can be a true benefit to your search. Use the Highlander to research all of the different Mountain Communities, so that you can find the one that best suits your particular needs. You can also find Realtors, Featured Developments, Building Services, as well as Log Home, Cabin, Timber frame, Post and Beam and Classic Builders to build your mountain dream home on the Highlander.

If you live in the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains, you are truly blessed. The Highlander is a great way to learn more about the great mountains that you live in. Take advantage of all of the possibilities to enjoy the mountains around you.

We have many new featured stories, mountain communities, scenic road trips as well as additional recreational information planned for this coming year, so bookmark and come back often and sign up for "Messages from the Mountains" to be notified when they go on-line.

If you haven't checked out the Highlander Kid's Club you should. We have great plans to for the Highlander Kid's Club this year, so don't forget to share a link with your friends. We are always open for suggestions, so tell us what you would like for us to create within the Highlander Kids Club.

Thanks for taking the time to visit the Highlander. This site is our way to share with you our love of the mountains and invite you to come and enjoy them the way we do. Don't hesitate to email us at suggestions@blueridgehighlander.com and let us know what you would like to see on the Highlander.