by Melanie McGee Bianchi . photo by Stewart O’Shields

The Fonz had Inspiration Point. Fats had Blueberry Hill. And when Popeye and Olive Oyl floated down Lovers’ Lane, they uncorked an iconic place name to be co-opted into infinity. (Google it and you’ll find everything from Midwestern sex shops to Lovers Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas.) So how about WNC’s Makeout Mountain? Perhaps area teenagers have a secret peak they’re not sharing. No matter. On condition of anonymity, we convinced plenty of local grown-ups to share their favorites.

The Atrium at Haywood Park Hotel (downtown Asheville)

Accessible via the hotel proper, the Flying Frog Cafe & Wine Bar and the Bier Garden, the Atrium (the hotelier prefers "Promenade") is an echoey warren of secret spots mentioned by more than one romantic.

Riverside Cemetery in Montford (downtown Asheville)

Prefer a swift petting session with a surprise ending? Your makeout muse is short-story master O. Henry, buried in picturesque Riverside Cemetery. Or maybe your style touches all the bases and never pauses for breath. Got you covered: Asheville’s most famous author, the sentimental and longwinded Thomas Wolfe, is interred in Riverside, too.

Craggy Gardens

(Milepost 364 on the Blue Ridge Parkway)

Go past the Visitors’ Center. Duck to the left of the large trail shelter, veer off the trail and find your thrill somewhere among the masses of hot-pink Catawba rhododendron that make Craggy Gardens such a blissful destination every June. Better yet: visit the other 11 months of the year and avoid peeping tourists altogether.

Courtyard behind Wedge Brewery and Studios (River District, Asheville)

Anyone who gets worked up by the desperado whistle of freight trains needs to poke around behind the Wedge warehouse in the River District. Running water, chugging engines, those randomly protruding scraps of metal sculpture… it’s a regular cocktail for carnality.

Other spots to smooch in and around downtown Asheville:

• The dance floor at Scandals
• Chicken Alley and Carolina Lane
• The elevator in the Flat Iron Building
• The Red Stag Grill at the Grand Bohemian Hotel in Biltmore Village
• The very top seats of the Asheville Civic Center during a show