Back to Nature...

Wintergreen spills down the slopes of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains roughly 45 miles west of Charlottesville. A master-planned private resort, it begins 3,800 feet above sea level at Devil's Knob, where it overlooks the Shenandoah Valley, and ends in the valley of the Rockfish River. Altogether it covers 11,000 acres, 60 percent of which remains forested in evergreens, towering oaks, and other hardwoods. The forest also hold 13 species of orchids and one ancient fern bed estimated to be 1,000 years old. Some 30 miles of marked hiking trails thread through the property, with connections to one of the most scenic stretches of the Appalachian Trail.

Ecologically sensitive, Wintergreen has long followed a philosophy of preserving as much of the natural environment as possible while still carving out space for homes, condos, golf courses, tennis courts, and ski runs. Concentrating the lodging along the ridgetops at Devil's Knob meant they could leave substantial tracts of forest undisturbed, and the construction that did take place adopted the colors of the earth, rocks, and trees in order to blend with the surroundings. There are more than 3,500 condos and homes scattered through the property but their very unobtrusiveness would lead you to guess far fewer. Deed covenants ensure that that will never change, and so does the fact that the resort is owned not by a corporation but by the property owners themselves, who don't want to see the value of their investments undermined by the continual addition of new housing stock.