North Carolina Day Trips by Theme

Marla Hardee Milling is a native of Asheville, North Carolina, and a seventh-generation Buncombe County resident. She’s been self-employed as a full-time freelance writer since August 2004. More than 850 of her articles and essays have appeared in a wide variety of magazines, websites, and newspapers. She serves as a longtime contributing editor for Blue Ridge Country magazine. Her byline has also appeared in Our State: Celebrating North Carolina, Smoky Mountain Living, Capital at Play, Far & Wide, Go Magazine (AAA Carolinas), Asheville Citizen-Times, Charleston, WNC Magazine, Denver, The828.com, WNC Parent, NICHE, AmericanStyle, Luxury Living, Parenting, Redbook, Health, Pregnancy, Kids Health, Women’s Health & Fitness, SmartComputing, PC Today, The Christian Science Monitor, New Orleans Gourmet, Chocolate for a Woman’s Soul Volume II, and many others. Marla has also written three other nonfiction books: Only in Asheville: An Eclectic History; Legends, Secrets and Mysteries of Asheville; and Wicked Asheville. She previously spent 10 years as a news producer at WLOS-TV in Asheville and 6 years as director of communications at Mars Hill College (now University). She loves traveling and making new discoveries. Her children, Ben and Hannah, are her best day-trip buddies.

Coon Dog Day

Downtown Saluda, NC 28773; 828-749-3789 cityofsaludanc.com/coon-dog-day-1

Organizers of many North Carolina festivals ask you to leave your four-legged friends at home. That’s not the case for this annual festival in Saluda. Dogs are welcome as long as they are leashed. Coon Dog Day is billed as “a celebration for dogs and their people.” Activities include a 5K race, live music, a quirky parade, a street dance, and an American Kennel Club–licensed show. Held in July. Free admission; registration fee for race and show.

Folkmoot Festival

Various locations in Western North Carolina; 828-452-2997 folkmoot.org

Folkmoot is a long-running festival headquartered in Waynesville that brings seven to nine international dance teams to Western North Carolina each July. The goal is to celebrate diversity and cultural differences and create a global bond through friendships. The idea of such a folk festival came to Dr. Clinton Border in 1973 as he traveled with a local square dance group to a folk festival in England. He came home with a plan to create an international folk festival here. He traveled to a range of folk festivals, researched how they work, and finally in 1983 proposed his idea to town leaders. Within a month, they embraced his idea, and Folkmoot USA was born. The 10-day festival kicks off with a Parade of Nations on Main Street in Waynesville. During the week, the dance groups perform at multiple venues in the region, and then they return at the end of the festival to Main Street in Waynesville for International Festival Day, a street party with international crafts, music, and food. Separate admission charged for each performance.

Grandfather Mountain Highland Games and Gathering O’ Scottish Clans

MacRae Meadows at Grandfather Mountain, 2050 Blowing Rock Hwy., Linville, NC 28646; 828-733-1333 gmhg.org

Held in July each year on MacRae Meadows at Grandfather Mountain, this long-running festival started in 1955. Competitions take place in Highland dancing, piping, drumming, Scottish athletic events, track and field events, fiddling, and Scottish harp. Learn more about history and genealogy at clan tents. There’s also sheepherding, a children’s Highland wrestling competition, Celtic music, and more over the course of four days. Single-day, multiday, and single event tickets with and without shuttle rides are available; visit the website for parking locations.