Play, picnic or practice yoga on this Appalachian bald Max Patch is a “bald,” the Southern Appalachian name for a hilltop without a single tree. While this mountain isn’t naturally bald (it was cleared for grazing in the nineteenth century), it’s certainly naturally beautiful. Some call it “the crown jewel of the Appalachian Trail,” the famous footpath
Once a rail bed, now an idyllic hike along a mountain creek There’s something about the Laurel River Trail that feels hidden and undiscovered, even if you’re sharing this former rail-bed trail with others. Take a picnic, bring your dog and wear your swimsuit if it’s summer. There are many places to sit out on the rocks and soak in the sun. This is a family-friendly hike that even
A perfect point of departure from the Parkway With thousands of acres of wilderness close to Asheville, where do you start to explore? For an introduction to the splendor of mountain scenery, try Craven Gap off the Blue Ridge Parkway, just 15 minutes from downtown. It’s a hike that families can enjoy. It's also the only place a president has set foot on the Parkway: President and Mrs.
Catawba Falls is relatively close to downtown Asheville (just 25 miles away) and offers stunning beauty thanks to a series of cascades that, together, are 100 feet tall. The U.S. Forest Service recently has made the easy-to-moderate trail even more enjoyable by adding two new footbridges so that you no longer have to rock hop across the river to enjoy the falls. The hike is just three miles round
Meet the locals on this urban trail Just north of downtown, the 10-acre Asheville Botanical Gardens at the University of North Carolina at Asheville is an urban oasis with a shady half-mile loop trail that highlights 600 species of plants native to the Southern Appalachians. Reflecting Asheville’s character, this botanical garden isn’t too formal. You’ll often find students here
A legendary landscape, a variety of hikes With 8,000 acres of nearly intact Western North Carolina landscape, the grounds at Biltmore are equally as grand as the famed house. The roughly 22 miles of trails here run through meadows with stunning views of the French Broad River and along the river itself and past the estate’s agricultural fields. The majority of the terrain is flat and easy
