A view of autumn foliage in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina. Photograph © James P. Blair

Ranch on High
By Paul Martin

"Good heavens, I can't believe it," Judy Coker says with mock horror. Coker is one of the owners of Cataloochee Ranch, a thousand-acre cattle operation/equestrian center/ski resort in Maggie Valley, North Carolina—and she has just witnessed my major faux pas: pouring pancake syrup on my grits. "You know things like that were what started the War Between the States."

Momentarily flustered by Coker's tongue-in-cheek comment, I recover my composure as I observe her ladling strawberry jam into her own bowl. And I realize how far I've come from my home in the suburbs of Washington, DC. It's plain that here, just 35 miles west of Asheville and a mile up in the Great Smokies, I'm in another country.

It's a country that's easy to like if you enjoy trail rides through thick woods and lush green meadows, or hiking, fishing, tennis, and swimming—or just sitting on the glider on the front porch of your cabin, feet up on the porch rail and a good book in your lap.

Coker's clan has been welcoming guests to their family-friendly resort since 1939, and the staff at Cataloochee sets an informal tone. The hearty, home-style communal meals (sample menu: baked country ham, candied squash, green beans, scalloped tomatoes, corn bread, and blackberry cobbler) ensure that guests get to know one another right away, although the trail rides—the heart of a Cataloochee stay—pretty quickly break down any reticence: Even uptight adults are soon acting like kids when they get around horses.

I know I was grinning like mad as our group of eight riders cantered along the dirt road leading up to Hemphill Bald one morning. I was seated astride a rangy bay gelding named Soco. ("Sometimes we call him ‘Loco' Soco," wrangler Rebecca Heatherly confided to me once I was aboard. "He gets nervous if he isn't the last horse on the trail.") We followed the road through a shady cove of hemlock, mountain laurel, and rhododendron. Emerging on top of Hemphill Bald under a brilliant blue sky, we looked out on a classic Smoky Mountain landscape: waves of brawny peaks and mist-filled valleys rolling to the horizon. About a thousand feet below us, the ranch spread out like a diorama, and beyond we could see the slopes of the ranch's ski runs, the longest with a 740-foot vertical drop.

After a day of outdoor activity at Cataloochee (or day-tripping to nearby diversions like Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Asheville and the huge Biltmore Estate, Cherokee heritage sites, the Pigeon River for white-water rafting, and nearby towns for some crafts shopping), guests wind down with drinks in the main ranch house. After dinner comes storytelling around the fire, or, once or twice a week, live music. One night, singer-guitarist Jeanne Nabor knocked us out by playing every request we could think of for two hours.

The best time of day, though, is when you get back to your cabin in the evening, start a fire in your own fireplace, ease into a rocking chair, and mellow out until bedtime. Then, with the embers burning low, a cool night breeze and the distant call of a whippoorwill drifting in through an open window, you relax into the deep, quiet peace of these ancient mountains.

The information in this story was accurate at the time it was published, but we suggest you confirm all details before making travel plans.