315 Lazy Bear Trail
Vilas, NC 28692
Visited February 15-17, 2020
Stayed in the Lost Creek Room
$205/night
This post is part of a trip series. To view the trip, click here.
The story behind this place is quaint. A nice couple decided to build a bed and breakfast in the hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and did so with what one could call “their bare hands”. Photo’s in the fire-side photo album do show power tools and earth movers were used as well.
Mark & Anne Winkelman built the Lazy Bear Lodge in 2005. The building was designed as a bed and breakfast giving the layout enough of a hotel feel for those of us used to such accommodations. There are 5 rooms, each with its own bathroom, complete with shower and soaking tub. All rooms have gas stove/heaters, and we experienced the temperamental nature of such things, but it worked enough we were comfortable. 3 rooms have private balconies; we were lucky enough to have one overlooking the valley, and it is 100% worth it.
John & Marsha Speer purchased the lodge in 2017, and currently do a fantastic job of running the inn.
We stayed in the room named “Lost Creek”. It is the smallest in size, but carries all the amenities included with the others, including a true private balcony (one room shares a floor with the main deck on the main floor). Temperatures dropped to the 20’s our first night, and the bedding and room where nice and cozy for Floridian’s like ourselves.
Our first morning I woke up to film the sunrise. The DJI Osmo 3 was new and I wanted to checkout its time-lapse features. A sunrise seemed like a great subject for such a test. While retrieving my camera equipment from the Jeep, I discovered a wonderful characteristic of this lodge; it has a creaky floor. It was a wonderful addition to our “log cabin” experience, but at 6 AM it was a little unwelcome. Later, we met the couple staying in the room beneath us, which also is under the stairs, and they confirmed they could not hear my heavy footsteps, keeping the trait a rustic experience opposed to a reason of concern.
We had a wonderful 2 nights at the lodge. We’d really like to come back and see it in the summer months, as it really would be a change of the scenery. It is definitely on our visit again list.
The bridge
I’d be doing our readers a disservice if I didn’t mention “the bridge”. Waze took us over this bridge, not once, twice. Not something you’ll ever see in Miami.
