where oh where do i begin? so i am searching around cyberspace looking for the most interesting abandoned places that i could check out and what did i find? the abandoned land of oz. located at the top of beech mountain in north carolina. it is a now defunct wizard of oz theme park that has been sitting abandoned since 1980. it is owned by a real estate company called emerald mountain. it is on private property and i do not recommend that you visit here any time soon unless it's to attend the autumn at oz event that happens every october. why, you say? because they will immediately and effectively boot you off the property, no questions asked. they don't care that you just hiked a mountain in home made ruby red flippers (flip flops) and wearing a funny tee shirt proclaiming 'not nobody, not no how' with a green mustache. i was only able to snap a few pictures and get very excited until an angry little man (sans green mustache) stormed down the hill to exclaim "you are on private property!" (like i didn't know that after the zillion signs i walked around...maybe i should have taken them more seriously??) i have to be honest, the booting may have hurt a little less if he had been wearing a green mustache and tossed out the 'nobody gets in to see the wizard' line. if that was my job, i would totally get into it. like seriously, wear a costume or something, buddy. you're in oz for crying out loud. anyway...
here i am, hiking up a mountain (ok, to be honest, it was on a road up a slight incline, but it was a constant incline and if i wasn't already dead, i would have died from exhaustion when i got to the top) and i come across this sign 'the oz road' with an arrow pointing in the direction i was heading. yes! i found it! i was almost there! or so i thought. what seemed like hours later (okay, mabye one hour later) i finally found my way to the top, but not after passing a bunch of houses that were apparently for rent, but not for rent by me because i could obviously not afford to do so.
i get to the top and find a ski lift. it seems to be a ski resort in the winter...which makes sense, it is on a mountain (actually, the town of beech mountain claims to be highest elevated town east of the mississippi). and i pass under this sign. super exicted now, i am on my way! yeah! no! i can see the doors to oz, but i can also see there are security cameras and what appeared to be barbed wire. barbed wire? wow, they really didn't want anyone to get in there without permission.
so i strolled here and there looking to see if there might be a way i could slip in, but alas, out of no where appeared that angry little man i spoke of. he didn't want to answer questions or talk at all. get out, was basically all he was programmed to do. so get out i did. but not before i snapped the most amazing photo of the yellow brick road. i will go back. i have to. i have to see what's on the other side of that door. curses little angry man and your lack of imagination <shakes angry fists in the air>!! i managed to sneak a peek through a crack in the door and this is what i saw....ugh!! why'd it have to look so cool?? why couldn't it be some cheesy cheeseball place that no one was interested in visiting (okay, i would totally go there if it was cheesy too, you got me).
so i hung my head in disappointment and moped my way back down the mountain. but not before i channeled my inner munchkin and grabbed a photo op on the lawn of a nearby home. they had they yellow brick road running accross their front yard. i don't know why. it was weird, so take a picture, i did. so yes, once a year oz is open to the public, an event called autumn at oz. it's one weekend a year every october. i guess i will have to suck it up and buy the stupid ticket if i really want to see what's inside. on to my next adventure...
