Clingmans Dome is the highest point in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in the state of Tennessee, and along the Appalachian Trail. Standing 6,643 feet, it is also the third highest peak in the East, only 41 feet lower than the tallest. Several hiking trails surround the summit of Clingmans Dome, including the Forney Ridge Trail that heads south to the picturesque...
Learn MoreHot Springs, NC is an Appalachian Trail Community that sits along the French Broad River in the Appalachian Ranger District of Pisgah National Forest. The Appalachian Trail was built through Hot Springs more than seven decades ago, and today white blazes still mark the path through town and over the bridge across the river, before heading north up to the vista, Lover’s...
Learn MoreToms Creek Falls, a breathtaking 80-foot cascade waterfall near Marion, NC, is now accessible to visitors of all ages and abilities. The Grandfather Ranger District has completed work on the Falls Branch Trail (#214) and trail head parking area. Trail work included installation of an accessible observation deck below the falls and resurfacing of the ½ mile trail and...
Learn MoreJeff Brewer, of Raleigh, is a hiker’s hero and a driving force behind North Carolina’s flagship trail. Brewer fell in love with hiking in 1996 when he took a hiking class with author Allen DeHart at Louisburg College. “Well, it’s good to get away from the hustle and bustle of traffic and take the cell phones and put them away,” Brewer said....
Learn MoreEnjoy this time lapse of Western North Carolina from local videographer Smith Woosley.
Learn MoreBefore there were roads, there were only trails. Before there were wheels, there were only feet. Before the Norsemen and Columbus stumbled upon North America, the continent was crisscrossed by a trail system chiseled into the earth by animals large and small and the silent moccasins that followed them. Three hundred years ago, the southern Appalachians were home to the...
Learn MoreSometimes your hiking plans just don’t work out. That happened when our plans were kiboshed by a closed and padlocked gate. They say when the world gives you lemons, go take photographs, or something like that. There isn’t much more beautiful in Spring than Lake Lure and Chimney Rock State Park. Morse Park on Lake Lure features beautiful vistas of the...
Learn MoreThe Cradle of Forestry along Scenic Forest Byway 276 in Pisgah Ranger District is the birthplace of forest conservation in America. Spanning over 100 years of forest conservation history, the Cradle offers a snapshot of life at America’s first School of Forestry along the Biltmore Campus Trail. German forester Dr. Carl A. Schenck accepted George Vanderbilt’s offer to...
Learn MoreThere are lots of little maintenance trails alongside the Blue Ridge Parkway that don’t show up on any trail maps or have any signs to let you know they are there. One of those is a hidden gem in the high country at milepost 420 directly across from the Black Balsam spur road. It’s great for an hour stroll to brighten you senses, or if you’re looking...
Learn MoreIt’s been nearly 20 years since Burt Kornegay first started looking into land along Hickory Knoll Road in Macon County, NC, but dirt is finally moving on the Bartram Trail Society’s vision of routing a piece of the long-distance trail away from the road and over the Pinnacle and George Gray Mountain instead. “This had been years in the making,” said Kornegay, who was in...
Learn MoreThere are only two trails in all of Great Smoky Mountains National Park where you can ride your bike or walk your dog. The Oconaluftee River Trail near Cherokee, NC is one of them. Starting at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, this easy 3-mile round trip is a stroll along the river, and through history. You pass by the Mountain Farm Museum, a collection of 19th century...
Learn MoreExactly what the name implies, Big Creek in the Smokies is larger than some rivers in the area. Add in a 70° day after a couple snow events and Big Creek will really roar. When Big Creek roars, that brings out the kayakers, so there was even more of a show than just the scenery. Big Creek Trail is an old logging road that follows the creek westward beneath the...
Learn MoreJoin in a celebration of the life and works of Horace Kephart — author, outdoorsman, and a founding father of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park — at The Schiele Museum of Natural History in Gastonia, NC on Friday & Saturday, May 14-15, 2015. Kephart wrote the classic study of Appalachian mountain culture (Our Southern Highlanders, 1913) and the...
Learn MoreThe Appalachian Trail Conservancy (ATC), along with the Smoky Mountains Hiking Club (SMHC), invite the public to attend the official designation of Fontana Dam, North Carolina, as the newest Appalachian Trail Community™. The ceremony will be held on Thursday, March 26, 2015, and is free and open to the public. The event will kick off at 11 a.m. with music from the Larry...
Learn MoreBeginning in March, the Swannanoa Valley Museum will launch the sixth year of its Rim Hike Series, which features 11 hikes across the ridges and peaks surrounding the Swannanoa River valley in North Carolina. The series sprang from museum founder Harriet Styles‘ popular wildflower hikes along many of these same paths. After Styles passed away, the museum decided to...
Learn MoreJoin Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy (CMLC) Thursday, Feb. 26, 2015, for a presentation featuring the Headwaters State Forest. Learn how the 8,000-acre conservation project at the East Fork Headwaters got its start, the history of the property, and how its benefits will impact residents and visitors of Transylvania County, NC. Project stakeholders will give an update...
Learn MoreWhen bitter cold winter temps come around, perhaps the last thing on your mind is hiking. I get that. I’m no fan of the cold either. As with everything else though, Mother Nature has a reward if you are willing to tolerate the temporary discomfort. Frozen waterfalls! It’s a rare occurrence in Western North Carolina, but usually once a year, the air will stay...
Learn MoreThe U.S Forest Service wants to hit the reset button on its planning process for Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests in North Carolina. The agency is planning a new series of public meetings, tentatively scheduled for April, regarding its ongoing forest plan revision, which will guide management of the two forests for at least a decade, said Kristin Bail, supervisor of...
Learn MoreSometimes the forest roads in national forests make the best hiking trails. Such is the case with FR 5031 in Pisgah National Forest. Located near Courthouse Falls on the far southwestern side of Pisgah, near the boundary with Nantahala National Forest, FR 5031 is a means of getting from a drainage bowl to Farlow Gap on Shuck Ridge. For mountain bikers, you could connect...
Learn MoreThe North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has publicly denounced the red wolf reintroduction in coastal counties, calling for the red wolves to be rounded up — despite being the only wild population of red wolves on the planet. Last week, the Commission adopted two resolutions: one requesting that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service end the red wolf reintroduction,...
Learn MoreAfter more than a decade of hydropower relicensing negotiations and years more of permitting and construction, Duke Energy is finishing a slate of river accesses that will make the Tuckasegee one of the most accessible rivers in the Southeast. At the same time, a collective effort to create an interactive map showing where and how to recreate on Western North Carolina...
Learn MoreThe North Carolina Division of Parks and Recreation and the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail (FMST) are pleased to jointly announce the naming of the Coastal Crescent Trail as an additional option for hikers seeking to walk across North Carolina. The Coastal Crescent Trail will serve as an option in eastern North Carolina until the Mountains-to-Sea State Trail (MST)...
Learn MoreAn ambitious project that began on the Blue Ridge Parkway to connect children with the great outdoors is getting bigger. Kids in Parks, a signature program of the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation, has been awarded $921,000 from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation to continue its work helping kids and families reconnect with nature through TRACK...
Learn MoreEven though Devils Elbow is a mountain summit, the highlights of the Devils Elbow Trail in Panthertown are the myriad of waterfalls on the Tuckasegee River. The river forms at the confluence of Panthertown and Greenland Creeks, then takes a wild ride over several falls on its way eventually to Fontana Lake in the Great Smoky Mountains. Most of this hike is on maintained...
Learn MoreFor a scenic stroll along a horse path through the South Mountains forest, you may give Little River Trail a try. Starting at the Cicero Branch parking area and climbing above Jacob Fork gorge, you will pass viewpoints for the North Carolina Piedmont and follow Little River to the end of the trail at a small but treacherous hidden waterfall. I hiked to Little River Falls...
Learn MoreNorth Carolina’s South Mountains State Park has more than 45 miles of marked trails. No doubt the most popular is the High Shoals Falls Loop Trail, a short, but tough climb to an 80-foot crystal-clear free-fall. Travel for a mile along rocky Jacob Fork River before beginning the steep ascent that requires stairs to navigate the tough terrain. From a viewing...
Learn MoreBlue Ridge Pastures is a grassy knoll northwest of Bearwallow Mountain along the Buncombe/Henderson County line. With terrific views of Hickory Nut Gorge, and on clear days The Great Craggy and Black Mountains, the reward for your hard work pays off. The Trombatore Trail will make you climb twice for your reward, once before and once after, but keep that reward in mind...
Learn MoreLocated less than 2 miles from Panthertown Valley in Jackson County, a new conservation easement will provide a critical wildlife corridor, connecting three other easements. The 48-acre Black Bear Trail property, now held by the Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust, becomes part of a continuous natural area of more than 1,000 acres, including habitat ranging from forest to...
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