Blue Ridge Parkway & Biltmore Gardens

Here are the rest of the pictures from my Asheville trip. Below are two pictures I took from lookouts on the Blue Ridge Parkway. You can see why they're called the Blue Ridge Mountains - at any hour of the day the distant hills are blue, even though close up you can see they're green with some red maples. Not sure what makes that color, but who cares - it's beautiful!!! If you're ever in that area, you must take some time to drive a bit on the Parkway.

Here is one of the back porches of the Biltmore House that leads to the Conservatory and path to the Bass Pond. I wonder how old that wisteria is....parts of it were as thick as regular tree trunks...

This is a statue in the Italian Gardens (actually built in the French style, which I thought was kind of funny) that I liked.

This is a beautiful pathway down to the conservatory....On the right were water fountains in the stone wall and statues lining the walk.

This is another statue I liked.

Below is the conservatory with its hothouse. There were SO many rooms in it, but I guess it would take that many plants to provide flowers for the house. It was a very neat place to walk around in - very calming, and they had baroque music piped in, which was so fitting! To the right and left of this walkway, there were the most enormous rose gardens I've ever seen.

This is the bass pond. The water was so clear you could see the bass floating in the moss below...Wish I'd had a net....

All along the walk to the pond, and all around it, they have benches placed so you can take a break and appreciate the surroundings. It was so peaceful!