Our drive from Crescent City California continued along the coast line with amazing views of the ocean.

But we could not linger long as we had an afternoon appointment.  We left the ocean side and Highway 101 at Winchester Bay and drove inland to Cottage Grove, home of Pacific Yurts.  We followed the Umpqua River still enjoying the beautiful river and forest lands when we came upon this herd of Elk.

Some of you may wonder why all the excitement about Pacific Yurts so let me explain.  You see, back in the fall of 2007 I got this crazy idea that I could build the home of my dreams in a Yurt.  So I ordered a 30 foot Pacific Yurt and found a friend that would help me with the carpentry work.  He built the round platform but refused to get involved in putting the Yurt up.  My friends and family came for the weekend mostly out of curiosity but by the end of the day we had successfully raised the frame work.  The next day we put the covers on and every one was standing back marveling at how easy it was to put the Yurt together.  Below you will see our Yurt where William and I live.

It was at this point that my daughter Melissa and I started thinking about how we could actually build a Yurt Resort in the NC Mountains.  It took several years for the dream to actually come true but in 2011 Melissa ordered three Yurts, purchased some land in the Nantahala Gorge of NC and opened Sky Ridge Yurts.

People seemed to love Glamping (Glamour Camping) and Sky Ridge Yurt’s popularity grew so quickly that four years later William and I ordered two more Yurts and the Resort started to grow.

Melissa and Jay also added this beautiful modern cabin to Sky Ridge Yurts just in case some people were not really into “Glamping”

Again in 2019, we decided to continue to grow our Yurt Resort and we ordered three more Yurts.  For this reason William and I were going to actually meet with the staff at Pacific Yurts in Oregon and check in on the progress of our order.

I cannot tell you how excited William and I were to be greeted by the owner of Pacific Yurts, Alan Bair.  We sat with him for well over an hour just getting to know each other.  William, also being a small business owner himself, and Alan had many things in common and enjoyed talking with each other.  They talked about their Rotary Club experiences and the Paul Harris Fellowship.  Eventually they ended up talking about sailboating because they both loved sailing.  Instantly we felt like family.

Here is a picture of us with Alan and Tammy, our sales person.

I was delighted to meet Mindi who had helped us with our order in 2015.  Just had to get a pic with her too.  We have become so fond of all the staff at Pacific Yurts.

Alan took us on a tour of the facility and showed us how our Yurts come together.  Here the guys are putting the lattice walls together.

And we also saw our very own lattice walls finished and wrapped for shipment.

Alan showed us  the rafters and the snow and wind supports.

Below you can see the center rings.  These are the rings that the rafters will connect to making the roof of the Yurt.  On the right side you can also see a tinted dome which will be attached on the very top of the Yurt over the center ring.

Here the guys are wrapping and packaging rafters for shipment.

It was so exciting for us to see how all this will be loaded onto a truck for shipment.  Our  own shipment would happen the following Monday and would take 9 business days to travel from Cottage Grove to Sky Ridge Yurts in Bryson City, NC.

Before leaving we took a tour of the model Yurts.  First we saw the 30 foot Yurt.  This is the largest size available and was the very first Yurt we bought.  We currently have two 30 footers.

Next we saw the 24 foot Yurt.  At Sky Ridge Yurts we now have a total of three this size.

This is the 20 foot Yurt.  We currently have two this size.

And this smallest Yurt – a 16 footer will be for Kathy.    It will make life so much easier having storage space for her to keep everything in one place.

Kathy is our head of staff.   She’s been with us for almost ten years, and she moved from employee to friend long, long ago. She is the backbone of our business, and she is the one responsible for making your stay at Sky Ridge Yurts as great as it is.

When our Yurts arrived in Bryson City we had to first unload them from the truck and get them ready for set up.

After four days we had all three Yurts up!

The best part about putting the Yurts up are the friends that came to help us.  We all worked hard, had a great time and built memories that will last a lifetime.