Boone & Blowing Rock — Appalachian State, Mountain Theater and the High Country

An hour and a half northeast of Asheville, the High Country of Watauga County pairs a lively college town with one of the oldest resort villages in the mountains. Boone — named for Daniel Boone, who hunted these ridges — is home to Appalachian State University, whose Turchin Center for the Visual Arts and long-running outdoor drama 'Horn in the West' anchor a rich cultural scene at nearly a mile of elevation. Just down the mountain, the elegant little village of Blowing Rock has drawn summer visitors for well over a century, and gives its name to 'The Blowing Rock,' North Carolina's oldest travel attraction, where updrafts off the John's River Gorge famously return light objects thrown into the wind. This two-day journey weaves together university galleries, frontier drama, a genteel mountain main street, and the beloved Tweetsie Railroad before the scenic drive home.