Asheville’s New A-Frame Campground Brings Scandinavia to Appalachia

Wrong Way River LodgeThe drive into Asheville somehow never disappoints. On the evening I arrived, the highway carved its curved path through actually smoky mountains, the ridges furthest in the horizon appearing a dark blue against the setting sun. When you enter the city along the French Broad River you pass muddy industrial parks, breweries, bike shops, rafting outfitters, and eclectic galleries—a scene incongruous to the French Renaissance chateau just outside of town that draws tourists.But that quirkiness, along with its access to some of the best outdoors activities in the eastern half of the United States, is a central part of Asheville’s charm. It has rafting, and hiking, James Beard Award-winning restaurants, and one of the highest concentrations of Art Deco architecture. It’s an odd one, and therefore it was apt that the reason I was there was for our Room Key series, to check out one of the odder, but more intriguing, new hotels in the country—Wrong Way River Lodge & Cabins.It’s a bizarre sight from the road, a range of A-Frame cabins on concrete stilts lined along the street across from the river. The aesthetic—Scappalachian as its owners have dubbed it, merging Scandinavian with Appalachian—is comforting without being ordinary. The cabins are made of SIPS boards and clad with different types of wood from trees cut down on the property when it was being built. A charming little gravel path winds along the entrances to each cabin. Inside, the cabins are minimalist without being spartan, with elements like colorful murals or countertops and bookcases made of reclaimed wood from a youth camp lightening the spaces. The deluxe cabins have dormers on the side to give them more room and light. The base of the property, 13 cabins in total, is in the river’s flood plain thus the concrete pillars.Read more at The Daily Beast.