ROAN MOUNTAIN — One of the oldest and most scenic festivals in Northeast Tennessee takes place next weekend when the 74th Rhododendron Festival is held at Roan Mountain State Park.
HIGH COUNTRY â After a topsy-turvy year in 2020 that severely affected businesses, especially the entertainment industry, virtually every usual festival hosted in the High Country was forced to suspend activities in the era of COVID-19.
Following a difficult year of gathering restrictions and heeding health protocols, light is perhaps seen at the end of the tunnel as the proliferation of vaccines and the reopening of counties and states provide hope for festival venues and activities to resume with some level of normalcy.
Traditionally, festivals throughout the High Country are filled with revelers and activities that range from bluegrass and Celtic music to fine arts and symphonies, from hand-created artwork to varieties of performing arts through drama, dance and more. A number of the long-standing festival events look to make their return amid safe guidelines in the summer of 2021.
Itâs the 74th festival, marking it as one of the oldest festivals in the region.
The Roan Mountain Citizens Club has been putting on the festivals since June 1947. This yearâs event is scheduled June 19 and 20.
The festival is always held around the third weekend in June, when the Catawba rhododendron reach their peak bloom in the Cloudland Gardens atop Roan Mountain, which has an elevation above 6,000 feet.
Although called a garden, Cloudland is not man-made, as the rhododendron thrives and blankets many acres of mountains in the Appalachians. But the Cloudland Gardens are said to be the largest in the world. Thousands of magenta-pink blossoms erupt when the plants bloom.
ROAN MOUNTAIN â Carter Countyâs newest business is quickly making its climb to the top. That is because High Country UTV Mountain Tours is equipped with some powerful Yamaha Viking 3 and Polaris RZR utility terrain vehicles that can go straight up some of the steepest, muddiest trails like they were racing on flat land.
The business located just outside Roan Mountain State Park is owned by Monie and Janice McCoury and while they have spent the last few months carving the trails throughout their mountainous 160 acres at 401 Hampton Creek Road, they are not new to Carter County. For the past five years, they have owned and expanded their successful Off the Grid Mountain Adventures where U.S. 19E reaches its highest point where Sullivan County and Carter County meet.
Letters: What do you think about a whitewater park in Elizabethton?
With our Question of the Week, we asked readers for their thoughts on a proposal to build a whitewater park in one of the rivers passing through Elizabethton. Here are some of the answers we received.
Outdoor recreation adds quality of life
I think this is an awesome project. Rafting on the Watauga is a wonderful family experience and would be an ideal river to end that trip with a big finale.
Locals and tourists would really benefit from this addition. We have a few success stories in the area already; the investments in the Tweetsie Trail and the Tannery Knob bike park have managed to add a ton of value to this community and will only get better with time.