Bear Lake Reserve

We spent final week at Bear Lake Reserve in western North Carolina. Right here is the primary of three recaps of our journey together with the place we stayed, the lodge, and lake life.

Wait a second, this isn’t Bald Head Island?! We pivoted our household trip from the seashore to the mountains on the final minute when Hurricane Debby threatened exhausting rain and wind at some point of our time scheduled on Bald Head. We went as far south and west as we may that made driving cheap and to get out of the trail of the storm. Kudos to dad and my sister for pulling it collectively the day earlier than we left!

We made the appropriate alternative although as a result of we had PERFECT climate for our week at Bear Lake Reserve! My sister’s associates really helpful it, and what a gem this place is. Right here’s the recap of our household journey.

Bear Lake Reserve is a mountain resort about an hour west of Asheville, North Carolina. It’s fairly actually in the course of nowhere surrounding Bear Lake, which is a man-made reservoir. So far as lakes go, this one is on the small aspect, however there was loads of area for boating, swimming, and fishing.

Bear Lake Reserve is a sprawling resort with properties, condos, and villas for each full-time owners and friends who hire them out like us.

The Bears

There are apparently a number of bears who reside among the many reserve. We heard there was a household of them on our villa’s porch simply the week earlier than! I used to be a little bit scared to go operating alone or out after darkish, however I sadly didn’t see any bears whereas we had been there! Thomas and Mazen noticed a household on the way in which residence from golf.

Getting There

The drive from Charlottesville was about 7 hours with a number of stops, however all of us agreed the mountain views made the drive extra nice than the drive to the seashore.

There’s a greeter’s cottage while you enter the resort that provides you with a pleasant property map proper while you start to lose cell service! We discovered the workers to all be so pleasant and useful throughout the entire resort.

It was a couple of 20 minute curvy drive from the greeter’s cottage to our villa, however the views on the high had been price it!!

Our Villa

We rented Saddle Notch Villa #7 which had attractive views of the mountains and the even the lake. We LOVED the porches!! The villa had 4 bedrooms and a sofa/TV/household room that Mazen slept in, so it was the proper measurement for us. It was superbly embellished, stocked, and so good for our fam.

We had a hearth pit that was nice for s’mores at evening. It’s shared with different villa friends/house owners however we made associates with some good households on the market!

Groceries

Observe you’ll need to pack your entire groceries as a result of there isn’t actually a retailer close by. We introduced nearly every little thing we would have liked for staples, and ended up doing an Instacart order from the Ingles within the subsequent city for dinner elements one evening. We didn’t have an incredible expertise with our driver who left them on the cottage as a substitute of delivering them, however the good workers introduced them as much as us. The cottage and low store do have a number of issues like milk and snacks in the event you want some fast issues.

First Evening Dinner

Breakfast + Lunch with a view

Ready For The Cousins

My sister and her household didn’t arrive till Monday evening, so there was a lot anticipation for his or her arrival!

Taco Evening

We introduced taco elements from residence and made them for dinner on evening 2.

Getting Round

We had been a little bit bummed to seek out that the hike to the pool and seashore was in reality a hike, nonetheless, many people did this 0.8 mile hike/stroll each day. There have been two wooded trails you might take or you might stroll on the highway. Happening wasn’t dangerous, however arising wasn’t for the faint of coronary heart. It wasn’t dangerous with a small backpack, however you’re not going to need to carry pool gear or coolers up and down, so we normally had 1-2 automobiles drive down with the gear and the people selected whether or not to go on foot or within the automobile.

The doorway to the decrease path

Or you might stroll on the highway. We didn’t let the children go alone.

It was a hike again up!

The Lodge

A couple of mile down the mountain is the gorgeous lodge! The pool was wonderful, and the children liked it! There was a waterslide and sizzling tubs, and so they heated the pool on our one chilly day. There was additionally a poolside bar the place we loved tropical drinks and some lunches.

There was additionally a health heart I used a number of instances, a sauna and steam room, locker rooms and naturally a pleasant restaurant the place we ate twice. That they had a number of little actions for youths, however most of them price additional so we didn’t find yourself doing any.

The Lake

The lake was completely beautiful! Mazen and Thomas rented some kayaks on the primary day and spent a lot of the day fishing. Sadly, they didn’t catch something. We didn’t see many fish swimming both (a lot to my delight!) so this should not be an enormous fishing lake. It was beautiful for swimming and tubing although.