Adventure Village Camping Trip : Elmo Falls & Bullington Gardens

Clump of New England Asters at Bullington Gardens

 Adventure Village Camping Trip : 

Elmo Falls, New Camper & Bullington Gardens

Kenny & Dana Koogler

Wally & Cathy Storey

Thursday July 12 through Sunday July 15, 2021

Camping Trip Photos Here 

This blog falls into the Perfunctory Category.  Meaning I am so far behind because of life events that I cannot spare the time to write a detailed report.  Too much time has elapsed for me to be able to recall many of the details.  I shall have to do this and catch up. Once that happens I shall start fresh and try to keep up. 

 

 We met up with our friends Wally and Cathy Storey to camp at Adventure Village.   I went over to Lemon Falls to do a clean up for my Waterfall Keeper duties. I found no trash.  It was all looking great.    We enjoyed their company.

    Elmo Falls 

 

   We planned on  hiking to Elmo Falls with Wally the next day.  We stayed in our new camper.  We were a bit nervous about it as it is a very hard creek walk/bushwhack.   We benefitted from the fact Wally and another of his friends made an attempt earlier this year.   It was unsuccessful, but he realized then what not to do.   We parked and took a short cut across a field to the stream then just followed it up.  It was a creek walk the whole way.  

Doing this made it shorter and simpler.  It wasn't as hot.  We worried less about snakes since we were not thrashing round in the rhododendron. 

It ended up being a lot of fun and far easier than expected. It is a very pretty falls and worth all the effort to see.  All in all it was fun and we were thrilled to spend time with Wally and say we'd done it!

Above: Elmo Falls in Summer greenery 

      

      

Above: the stream we were in was pretty nearly the whole way

Above: Wally rests at the crux. From here you have to climb up this slipper rock face.  It was the hardest part.  

Above: The rock cliffs around the falls

Above Wally at Elmo Falls

Below Wally & Kenny and I ate lunch at the falls

Below: a vertical orientation photo of Elmo Falls

Bullington Gardens

Here is a link to the Bullington Garden Pix 

Here is the Bullington Gardens Website 

   One of the places I wanted to visit this trip was Bullington Gardens in Hendersonville.   I found it looking up Hendersonville NC attractions on Google Maps. The photos I found of it lead me to the website.  I was fascinated.  I wanted to experience this place in person.   It looked like something that could be done in an hour or two at most.   I was wrong!  It may not look that big, but you'd best allow at least half day to see it if  you want to see all of it. 

  Bullington Gardens was the nursery business of Bob Bullington. 

He was a NYC policeman who loved horticulture.  He retired from police work and moved down to Hendersonville, NC to start his nursery business.  It was called Flora Farms back when it started. He moved to the area with his wife Sally in 1979.    He did a lot of traveling and introduced many exotic, lovely trees to the horticulture industry.  Today you can see examples of these all around the 12 acre grounds.   When he passed on he left the property to Henderson County school system.   Today it is open as a public garden with educational and recreational purposes.  It is free, but they gladly accept donations.  

    I think I saw about half of it today.  I will happily return upon the first opportunity.   It is amazing!  What a great gift to the area citizens.  

Below is a look at one of the first portions of the garden.  Native pollinator plants and flowers. Mountain mint, bee balm, New England Asters, yellow asters of some type.  This smelled wonderful and was humming with bees galore!

Below: This is the primary reason for my visit... the lily display garden.  

Below is a clump of Little Red Dragon lilies. 

Below Saturday Night Fever lilies 

Below: Marsh Fire lily cultivar

Above: Another look at all those colorful lilies!

Above: a super colorful and appealing scene at the gardens. Zinnias of many colors, snowball bush, lady in red salvia, blue salvia.  butterfly bush, and fennel. 

Above: I loved these deep colored lilies

Above: shady koi pond with water lilies, carnivorous pitcher plants and ferns

Above: a scene in front of the greenhouse

Below: raised beds of flowers and veggies at the greenhouse

Above: One small part of the Fairy Garden. 

Below: Another vignette of the Fairy Garden which was quite large! 

Below: One example of an exotic tree. Sargent's Weeping Hemlock. It is massive! 

Last of all is a photo of the little potting shed that was quaint

  I enjoyed this so much. Honestly any repeat trip to Bullington Gardens needs to be a separate blog piece all its own.  It is a delight.   I missed seeing the nature trail, Boost garden, and amphitheater.  I did not miss much, but I did not cover it all. It is a fun place for all people.  Lots of whimsy for kids of all ages.   

Cradle Falls 

   The last day of our trip we had to pick something nearby and not too long of a hike because of check out time.  We went to Cradle Falls in the Pisgah National Forest. It was not real great. The company was wonderful and the scenery pretty. Being Summer the falls had not a lot of water and it is not a real big falls even on a good day.  We concluded our trip and headed back to the campground to pack up for home.   It was good to get away for a relaxing break.