Jones Gap is great place for a picnic, a hike or primitive camping. 
The Jones Gap Trail runs along the Upper Saluda River which is a beautiful river and home to brook and rainbow trout. It leads to a small waterfall as well as to a number of other more difficult trails.
Max Patch is a bald mountain located on the NC/TN border offering 360 degree panoramas. It can be reached through a variety of trails or you can simply drive to it via NC road 148. (Take exit 7 from I40.) It also offers plenty of good camping spots.
Click image to see larger view of 360 Pan of Max Patch.
It also has some great trails of varying degrees of difficulty. 
It has two RV/tent campgrounds, as well as primitive walk-in campsites and some very nice (although rustic) cabins for rent. One of the great things about the cabins is that they have large stone fireplaces that (unlike many cabins) burn real wood. 
Distance from downtown Greenville: 32 miles.
Over the last decade, the Blue Ridge Mountain range has quietly become a home to dozens and dozens of wineries. The highest concentration of Carolina vineyards can be found in the Yadkin Valley. Sadly though most of these east coast wines leave much to be desired and in addition are over-priced. Knowing this, my wife and I didn't expect much when we stumbled across the Victoria Valley Vineyards, but we were pleasantly surprised. We tasted 12 different wines and found them all to be quite good.
The Village of Linville Falls is located on Highway 221 atop the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains, with an elevation of 3400 feet and an average summer temperature of 67 degrees. Unique in location, it is situated in three counties: Avery, Burke and McDowell. 
This is a 330 degree view from the Devil's Courthouse just off the Blue Ridge Parkway at mile marker 422. From this point, four states can be seen on a clear day, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. Click image for larger view.
The Cozy Cabin, located near Cashiers, NC, is great little place to run away to on a weekend. It's minutes from great hiking, fishing and golfing and the outdoor hot tub is a great way to both start and end the day.
Pleasant Ridge County Park is a great little park in northern Greenville County that appears to be practically unknown. Every time I've been there, there has never been more than a handful of people in the park. 
The park contains both car camping sites and primitive camping sites, hiking trails, a small lake which is good for both swimming and fishing and four cabins for rent. It also the future home of Camp Spearhead. To the right of the picture above were a flock of Canadian Geese and Great Blue Heron. Unfortunately they were all a bit skittish and I was not able to get a photo.
11 Center Street is a great wine bar and tapas restaurant located in Folly Beach, SC. It's relatively new and offers indoor and outdoor seating. The bottom part of the establishment is a wine and craft beer shop. 
The back area contains outdoor seating complete with firepace.
Upstairs has a small performance area and overlooks Folly's "downtown". 
The great little mountain town of Asheville, NC hosts a great little film festival which starts tomorrow and runs through Sunday. All the venues are in the downtown area and all are within walking distance of one another, as well as being close to great restaurants and pubs. 
This e-mail just arrived from our Waynesville innkeepers at the Inn at Irish Meadows.
Graveyard Fields is a popular pull off area on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It has access to three major waterfalls, acres and acres of blueberries, and several good campsites. The good news is that this area is easily accessible to almost anyone (with the exception of the physically handicapped). The bad news is that it's easily accessible to almost anyone, which means that the area is bombarded with what I call pull-off hikers, meaning people in sneakers, tank tops and flip-flops with screaming kids who leave their soda bottles laying on the trail. Also, because there is little tree coverage the noise from Parkway motorcyclists tends to further deteriorate the natural serenity of this beautiful area. Therefore the best time to visit is during the week when there are far fewer people and Harley riders are busy robbing banks or starting bar fights or whatever it is those guys do during the week.
Many dead trees such as these are located throughout the "graveyard".
This is the upper section of Upper Falls. The entire falls cannot be photographed all at once from the ground.
Lower falls is the easiest to access.
This is the very top portion of Yellowstone Falls which is a 125 foot cascading waterfall. It can best be seen a mile or so away, on the Parkway. There is no trail leading to it, and two different popular NC waterfall guidebooks advise against traveling to it. Nevertheless we had a very nice quiet lunch there away from the crowds. Since it is dangerous, I'll not give step-by-step directions for getting there. The falls are listed on National Geographic trail map number 780 and if you follow your nose, and eventually your ears, you can find it. If you find this exact area, you will be at the top and you can easily slip on a rock and fall to your death, so be careful, and don’t take small children.
Greenville's biggest annual street party featured the classic rock band Kansas tonight, along with many others.
This is a nice little restaurant located near Lake Toxaway. The seating is primarily located on a deck (sort of) overlooking Toxaway Falls. The menu, beer list and wine list are extensive, featuring several good craft beers and food items ranging from trout to duck to lobster to prime rib. Unfortunately they seem to be going through some growing pains so not everything on the menu is available at any given time, but it still makes a great place to stop after a day of fishing, golfing, hiking or geocaching nearby. 
There's not a better place to spend a Sunday morning than on Mimi's deck listening to live blues music, eating a shrimp omelet, and sippping a Bloody Mary. (My wife prefers the shrimp and grits.) It's a tiny joint with limited parking but the atmosphere and menu are definitely worth the wait. 
The view from Mimi's.
Image above taken from Patriots Point website.
Although today marked the last game of the season for the Greenville Drive, according to John Oliver, voice of the Drive, the West End Field will continue to be open for business. In the following weeks outdoor movies will be shown at the field, and the field will be open for happy hour and lunch on certain days of the week. 
Location: 34°50'31.76"N 82°24'29.70"W
The area contains at least eight different waterfalls and many rock domes. This shot was taken from atop a Little Green Mountain, which is a large granite dome. The top image is School House Falls. The image below is Warden Falls.
According to the Nature Conservancy, “Panthertown Valley is a treat for hikers, as it contains a curious mixture of threatened and endangered species and natural communities. Panthertown is distinguished by its broad flat valley floor flanked by granite cliffs abruptly rising 200 to 300 feet. These granite domes with exposed rock are uncommon in the southern Appalachians and offer spectacular open vistas. The unusually flat valley is home to at least 11 different natural communities, including the rare southern Appalachian bog and the swamp forest-bog community. These communities harbor numerous rare plants, such as Cuthbert's turtlehead, Canada burnet, marsh bellflower, climbing fern, and spinulose wood fern.
Much of the area contains white sand, like you would typically expect to find near the coast. Following the directions listed for the western trail head will take you to all of the locations seen here, and also through an upland bog where you can see a carnivorous plant called a sundew. (Click here to know what to look for.)
A mountain biker ahead of us found this rattler on the trail and encouraged him to move to this spot under some rhododendron.
