Going mountain leaf peeping? Here are 5 things to do along the way in Travelers Rest

There are many obvious things to do in Travelers Rest such as ride a bike or take a stroll on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. So many places to eat, from hot dogs to Vietnamese to Mexican to crepes. Coffee shops. Trailblazer Park.

But here are some of the more unusual businesses that have benefited from Travelers Rest’s resurgence. If you’re heading up to the mountains this fall to hike or soak in the changing leaf colors, consider adding these stops to your itinerary.

Carolina Honey Bee Company

Tim Dover has been around honey bees most of his life and became an enthusiastic hobbyist about 15 years ago. A few years later, honey and bees became his business. He and Susan Gardner bought a small shop in Travelers Rest to sell honey from their hives, and it grew way beyond their little store to 285 stores in five states.

They added bees and beekeeping equipment, another store around the corner in downtown Travelers Rest and workshops on beekeeping.

Dover said even now the mysteries of bees fascinate him.

“They dance to communicate,” he said.

The company remains a family enterprise, from the harvest, beginning in April, to the bottling.

“A ton a day,” he said.

10 South Main St., Travelers Rest

Carolina Bee Supply, 14 Center St., Travelers Rest

Leopard Forest Coffee

There are several coffee shops in Travelers Rest, but this is the original, and the only roaster, in town.

Adam Kelley started as a barista at Leopard Forest Coffee Company when he was a student at nearby Furman University. Now he owns the place.

Leopard Forest is the only coffee roaster in Travelers Rest. The roaster takes a prime spot right in the middle of the cafe.

The original owners imported green coffee beans from an estate in Zimbabwe and served their roasts exclusively. Kelley has taken the business in a new way, sampling beans from Balzac Coffee in Charleston, creating a flavor profile and roasting in house.

He has found customers are as discriminating about their coffee as beer drinkers about craft beer.

403 N. Poinsett Highway, Ste. D, Travelers Rest

Sunrift Adventures

This all-purpose outdoor retailer has been in business just off the main thoroughfare of Travelers Rest for 42 years. Once a feed and seed store, it’s been transformed into a sort of southern L.L Bean with boats, bikes, clothing, shoes, backpacks and more, including vast knowledge of the outdoors around Travelers Rest and the western North Carolina mountains.

General manager Julie Cush grew up in Travelers Rest. Her grandpa bought her first pair of Tevas when she was 8 at Sunrift, and she bought her first pair of Birkenstocks at 14. She knows where all the waterfalls are and the best places to hike.

Last Monday, the store got its shipment of bikes to rent after a year without rentals due to COVID’s effect on bicycle manufacturers.

1 Center St., Travelers Rest

As the Page Turns

This independent bookstore was started by a retired school teacher 13 years ago. After she retired, longtime employee Amy Williams bought the store and a year ago moved it to a former pharmacy building on Main Street.

She said customer service is her main business, so much so she learns the names of regular customers and what they like to read. During COVID, she provided books through the drive-thru window and stocked puzzles for people to take home and return for others to pass their home time.

32 S. Main St., Travelers Rest

History Museum of Travelers Rest

This is the little museum with big dreams and big donors, including its building, a former grocery store built in 1926.

A local Realtor donated the building to the Travelers Rest Historical Society in 2010. One catch: It had to be moved. Another family donated a piece of property. It was on the edge of the city, but fortuitously, on the Swamp Rabbit Trail.

Now, it’s been given the Spring Park Inn, one of the original boarding houses from the time Travelers Rest served as a stopover for planters and other people from the Lowcountry going to their summer homes in western North Carolina.

The inn, also located beside the Swamp Rabbit Trail but in the center of town, was the home of Nell Anderson Gibson until she died in 2020. She left the inn and 20 acres to the Historical Society.

Restoration of the inn is underway, Rosemary Bomar, president of the society, said.

Furnishings were left in the house, which will be restored to what it looked like in the 1890s to early 1900s.

“The heyday of the inn,” Bomar said.

It’s not open for tours yet, but you can see the outside from the gazebo in downtown Travelers Rest. The museum is open only on weekends.

3 Edwards St, Travelers Rest