No shopping trip to the Hardy County area is complete without a stop at the year-old Lost River Trading Post in nearby Wardensville. A pair of refugees from Washington turned a former Southern States store into a wonderland that includes a cutting-edge art gallery, a made-from-scratch bakery, the largest selection of craft beers in town, special coffees and several rooms jammed with ever changing local art, antique and collectible items.

This is no sort-through-dusty-bins antique place, though. It has the feel of a highly eclectic and energized gallery, which is no surprise since one of the owners is a well-known collector of outsider art.