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Grandfather mountain is a state park located near Linville, NC.

You have to take the car to a parking lot up in the mountain and the scenery you can see during the drive is spectacular. The ticket is little bit pricey but I think it is reasonable considering how hard it is to maintain the park.
They give you a CD to play during the drive and it narrates with all the information about the park and it has nice relaxing music as well.

From the parking lot, you can cross a one mile high swinging bridge which leads you to another mountain and experience a breath taking scenery.

On the way down, we stopped at their food court for lunch and visited an animal sanctuary they maintain which was next to the food court. We saw many animals including brown bears :)

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Elk river falls is located near Elk Park, North Carolina. You have to follow a small trail down the fall to get a glimpse of the water fall. Small kids can do the hike as well but parents should be cautious.

It is so relaxing to stare at the fall while sitting in front of it.

We came back to the cabin after having lunch from a restaurant hoping to visit Grandfather mountain next day.
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We visited Banner Elk, NC in spring break, 2018. We reserved a cabin there and spent two nights. The cabin was located in a mountain area. Surrounding was gorgeous as mountain tops were covered with little snow as well.

 

 The next day, we visited Elk River falls. 

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