Vote for us to win the SCORE #Business Award!

We have entered the Elkhorn Inn & Theatre to win the #SCORE $25,000 Unique Business Award- PLEASE VOTE FOR US- and please share it, too! (Apparently you can vote repeatedly- so PLEASE do, as we have to catch up with the folks who have 5000 votes!) https://championship.score.org/contest_entries/264102

The Elkhorn Inn is the ONLY entry from McDowell County #WestVirginia- and the ONLY "Coal Heritage Trail" historic building in the state providing lodging and fine dining! AND we are the ONLY restaurant in our area on the Bon Appetit Appalachia "foodie" map! So we really ARE unique! We truly hope to be their next  #BizChampion!  THANK YOU!

The Elkhorn Inn is an historic "Coal Heritage Trail" inn providing bed-and-breakfast accommodations in 14 guest rooms, and fine dining by reservation.  Thanks to Chef Dan's dinners, we are on the 6-state Bon Appetit Appalachia "foodie" map: http://visitappalachia.com/bonappetitappalachia/item/elkhorn-inn-theatre/

Our area offers the best railfanning (train photography ops), and wild stream trout fishing in the USA, and the best ATV and UTV trails in the eastern USA! We have gorgeous leaf-peeping here in the mountains in the fall, tons of historic sites to visit for those interested in West Virginia, railroading, and industrial and coal mining history, and lots of other fun in the mountains!
Please share the #ValentinesDay #love!

Great ATVing!

Great winding roads for bikers!

Great trout fishing on Elkhorn Creek!

 When we saved and restored the last, surviving historic “Coal Heritage Trail” building in Landgraff, WV in 2002, and opened our home as the Elkhorn Inn in 2003, our aim was to help kick-start the post-flood tourism economy of McDowell Co., by providing needed lodging & tourism services, as McDowell Co. offers excellent railfanning, ATVing, wild trout fishing, and other fun! We believed that we could not only save this historic building, but truly make it “live” again, welcoming guests from around the USA and overseas- and we did! We also have a “museum room” at the Inn documenting local history, a gift shop featuring local products, & we offer fine dining at the Inn by reservation, literally  putting McDowell Co. on the Bon Appetit Appalachia 6-state “foodie” map!

Chef Dan dinner: Caribbean Rum-Marinated Steak, with housemade Onion Jam

Chef Dan dinners: Chicken Piccata, served over Pasta

Dinner Party at the Elkhorn Inn!

Chef Dan Dinner: Shrimp Scampi

Golf AND ATVing!

Railfanning: the NS "Pocahontas" railroad across from the Elkhorn Inn (c) Sean Hoyden

Leaf-Peeping via ATV!

Chef Dan dinner: Herb-Rubbed Smoked Ribs!

The Elkhorn Inn & the NS "Pocahontas" railroad (C) John Sagert

Chef Dan Dinner: Herb-Poached Salmon with Alfredo-Dill Sauce!

Apples Guest Room

 

Blue Private Bath Guest Room

Dinner at the Elkhorn Inn...

Greenbrier Guest Room

Yellow Flowers Private Bath Guest Room

#bonappalachia #trainsarecool #Appalachia #Appalachian #smallbusiness #smallbiz #travel #TravelTuesday #CHT #coalheritagetrail #TTOT #bedandbreakfast #finedining
#railfan #trains #trainarecool 

#ATV Leaf-Peep & #Railfan Site Scouting! It's fall, y'all!

Now!

Next month!

This week hubs and I did a wonderful, easy ATV ride through the mountains to scout out the best places to "leaf peep" in October. Because it's gloriously LEGAL to ride ATVs on our roads here in McDowell County, WV, we  rode right from the Elkhorn Inn in Landgraff, WV, all the way to Lashmeet! It was a long, lovely ride, and although it is fall now, it was warm enough to wear sweatshirts, and our mountains are still 80% green! The best  leaf-peeing here is in October, and the foliage here is usually beautiful all the way through Halloween! (We often get calls at the Inn asking what the best weekend for leaf-peeping will be, and if I knew the anawer to that question I'd be a Very rich woman! We get similar calls in the winter, asking which spring weekend will be best to see the Rhododendrons flower! I wish I knew! Like the cherry blossoms in Japan, foliage and flowers are a giant Mother Nature Crap Shoot! LOL)

We rode from the Elkhorn Inn through Eckman, WV stopping first to take some photos of one of Sky's great new organic farms, which is literally one minute from the Inn. What was once an unsightly field of overgrown weeds is now squash and corn and beans, thanks to Sky and "McDowell County Farms"! :-)

 As you can see, our mountains have Just started to change color! Wait 'till next month!!











Then we rode through Crumpler, WV...

 And started riding 'round and 'round, up into the mountains...
See- it really IS still green!

Looking down to where we started!

Bear Town Church, Herndon, WV

  

 One of THE most gorgeous "leaf-peeping lookouts" we know of in Herndon, WV! Wait 'till next month!

Turkeys in the yard!

Herndon, WV

 Another gorgeous "leaf-peeping lookout" for October...

Dan feeding "Cheetos Dog"!

We found some great "railfan photo spots" along the way, too; these were near Giatto, WV.

An old RR line...

Elisse, at a great "railfan" photo spot!

Made it to Matoaka!

Another great railfan photo spot...

Lashmeet, WV: Pizza and Hoagies!

After Matoaka, we kept going to Lashmeet, WV, but just as we got there it began to drizzle! Fortunately, it was 4pm, and the Pizza/Hoagie place was just opening up for the evening, so we ran inside and had hoagies! And the rain passed us by!

On the way home... wait 'til next month!

On the way home, we stopped to take photos of some of the fall decorations in Keystone, WV...

Keystone, WV

Our last stop of the day was above our Theatre, where Dan took me to pick the cattails that I love to have to decorate the Inn in the fall!

Dan found THE Mother-lode of Cattails!

Then we came home, and DIY Dan decorated the Ekhorn Inn with garlands of leaves and wreaths and scarecrows- 'cause it's fall, y'all! :-)