Kristina and I decided it was finally time to venture out and go visit her family in North Carolina. Kristina hadn’t been there since a trip she had taken just about the time COVID was first hitting the United States, and it had been even longer for me. So we planned a trip to Asheville. Kristina’s Parents graciously offered to let us stay with them during our visit, and we decided that would be great for part of the trip – but that we also didn’t want to be too much of a burden, and also wanted to also have some time by ourselves. We wanted to travel around and visit little towns and sites around Asheville. Kristina’s parents recommended some nice hotels in the area, complete with concierge service. I had no idea what concierge was, so Kristina had to explain it to me. We decided that wasn’t really what we wanted for this trip, and we thought about looking into airbnbs. But then…
Firefly Cabin at night. 
A harvester butterfly. 
Purple coneflowers. 
Kristina watches butterflies forage on purple coneflowers. 
This red-spotted purple butterfly was on my flipflops. (That’s really the name of the species, not just a discription.) 
A waterfall. 
An American giant millipede. 
A mushroom. It may be a species called “trainwrecker” – so named because of it’s ability to grow in old railroad ties containing creosote. 
Misty forest. 
Ruins. 
Misty view. 
Morning mist over the cabin. 
Spiderweb. 
Sun through the mist. 
The front porch. 
Vines on a tree. If you look close you will see Kristina in the background. 
A trail through the woods. 
The cabin in the evening. 
A spotted orbweaver spider with prey. 
Inside the kitchen looking out. 
A tiny plant.
Whenever I visit someplace the three things I am most interested in knowing are: are there any designated wilderness areas nearby, are there any wild areas that could potentially become wilderness areas, and are there any nature preserves? I knew Western North Carolina had some wilderness areas, and some proposed wilderness areas. (Kristina and I had once hiked a little ways into the Shining Rock Wilderness Area.) But what about nature preserves? When I searched for nature preserves it didn’t take long to come across the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, and as I explored their website I was delighted to see their page for “Firefly Cabin on 248 Acres of Preserved Land.” How perfect! We happily made a reservation for part of the time we would be on our trip.
It was dark by the time we got to the Firefly Cabin. The cabin is so beautiful and cozy inside, and we were so happy to be there. For me a fun thing about getting someplace after dark is the suspense of seeing what the area looks like in the daytime, and the next morning we enjoyed stepping out onto the front porch and taking in the view of the surrounding meadow and forest. Then we made breakfast and went out to the back porch to sit at the little table there and eat our breakfast. I knew we were someplace special when a butterfly came up and landed on me. And then we saw other butterflies. Just beyond the porch was a beautiful patch of coneflowers and they were being visited by a different species of butterfly – a type of swallowtail that looks very different than any that I have seen in Utah. We had a great time watching the butterflies and taking photos of them.
During our stay at the cabin we enjoyed getting to know the caretaker, Bill, and his dog Pumpkin – who Bill lovingly called “Punk.” Kristina’s brother, Bradlee, came to visit us at the cabin. While the two of them visited at the cabin Bill and Punk took me on a hike up to a beautiful waterfall. It blew my mind when Bill explained to me that all of the water we were seeing there in the stream came from rain that had fallen on nature preserve property. The whole watershed upstream from us was part of the nature preserve. It’s so nice to see such a big, beautiful, natural area being protected and preserved. Bill told me a lot of things about the nature preserve, and about the wildlife that lives there. He showed me bear scat and a tree that had been clawed by a bear in the past.
One morning I woke up and looked out the window and was amazed by what I saw. There was mist all around and the light was shining through it – and it looked so spectacular! I quickly dressed and grabbed my camera and raced out to take photos. I walked down to some ruins – remnants from a cabin that had burned many many years ago, and it felt like I was in a fairy tale. For me that misty morning was one of the highlights of our trip, and something I will never forget.
I look forward to going back to the Firefly Cabin someday and spending more time there with Kristina – watching fireflies and butterflies, admiring flowers and big beautiful trees, and hanging out with Bill and Pumpkin. And who knows, maybe someday I will even get to see a bear there.
I guess hotels are nice, and I suppose a concierge would be good too (I think I understand what that is now), but for me no hotel could match the experience of staying at a historic cabin in a big, beautiful nature preserve.
Note: I have posted on iNaturalist sixteen species that I photographed in the nature preserve. You can see all of my iNaturalist posts by clicking on this link.
Uintah Wildman 