Mountainside Resort Surrounded by Grazing Pastures and Animal Farms
More than 450 acres make up the vast estate of The Inn at Mountain Quest, a sprawling turn-of-the-century white-clapboard building situated in a West Virginia mountain valley. If you walk to the top of the inn's four-story observation tower, you start to comprehend the seclusion of the property. Close by, you’ll see the farm’s red barns and a labyrinthine garden. Farther out, there are only vast expanses of rolling green pastures, where horses, llamas, and longhorn cattle are the only permanent residents, and the Allegheny Mountains tower in the distance.
Much of the experience at the inn is dedicated to embracing the surrounding nature and taking advantage of this solitude. This deal includes a farm tour, where you can meet the horses and llamas that live amid the lush valley. When there’s snow on the ground, use the property’s hiking trails for cross-country skiing. Back at the inn, you can relax and read selections from a 23,000-volume library. Every morning, the innkeepers lay out a complimentary buffet in the farmhouse breakfast parlor, which ranges from biscuits and gravy and french toast to waffles and omelets.
Each of the 12 rooms at The Inn at Mountain Quest adheres to a unique theme. On the first floor, the Playhouse room emulates the ambiance of a theater with its punched-tin ceiling, regal red brocades, and an usher who points a flashlight to the bathroom. Down the hall in the Nautical Cove room, a hand-painted waterfront mural lends to a maritime feel, and the Fantasy suite—a larger executive guest room—features a sitting area and looks out to the surrounding greenery.
Pocahontas County, West Virginia: Former Logging Area with Mountain Trails and Bass Fishing
Located about 150 miles east of West Virginia’s capital city, Charleston, the tiny, unincorporated community of Frost in Pocahontas County is surrounded by the Allegheny Mountains. The Greenbrier River Trail, a scenic biking route, passes over a series of wooden bridges near here, and its mountaintop fishing creeks are filled with bass and trout. About 30 miles from the inn, Snowshoe Mountain features downhill skiing and terrain parks for winter sports.
Trains weren't equipped to navigate Pocahontas County's mountain grades and curves until 1900, when the first locomotive train pulled into the area. The nearby Cass Scenic Railroad State Park transports passengers on vintage Shay steam trains to visit restored logging camps and the birthplace of Thomas the Tank Engine.
