Hiking in Western North Carolina
Frosty section of the Mountains to Sea Trail.
The mountainous western part of North Carolina is a haven for outdoor recreation enthusiasts. Some of the highest peaks in the East, surrounded by vast areas of wilderness and miles and miles of trails, invite visitors from all over the world. But even locals looking for an easy day hike find the area irresistible. Why take an expensive vacation thousands of miles away when a world-renowned outdoor playground is right next door?
HikeWNC.info is your on-line hiking guide for the Mountain region of North Carolina, containing all of the information you need to make your next trip complete. We aim to provide guidebook quality information that you can use in your outdoor persuits. Have fun browsing and hiking!
On This Site
Trails
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The new Trails section is dedicated to the trails in Western North Carolina. Use this section to search for a trail if you know its name. Each trail has its own page with all the details, a map (where available), and a place to leave ratings and comments.
Featured Trails: Long Branch, Short Loop, Shut In, Upper Ridge...
Trailheads
HikeWNC's Trailheads are hubs or larger areas where several trails are clustered together or in a network. Each represents a place where you can spend a day or more exploring hiking trails without driving too far (or at all!).
Featured Trailheads: Pisgah National Forest, Nantahala National Forest, Blue Ridge Parkway, DuPont State Forest, Bearwallow Mountain (New!)...
Best Hikes
The Best Hikes combine the individual trails from the Trailheads above into a fully guided experience. We feel like these trips are most representative of the great hiking that Western North Carolina has to offer!
Featured Hikes: Toms Creek Falls, DuPont State Forest Waterfalls, Rattlesnake Lodge, Mount Mitchell...
Maps
This section covers all of the maps we have available for you to view, download, and purchase, including maps of the Trailheads and Best Hikes above, and interactive Google Maps with downloadable GPS data.
Featured Maps: Interactive Map of Trailheads, USGS Topographic Maps, Nat. Geo Trails Illustrated™ Series...
Photo Gallery
Browse through photos of the trails, views, waterfalls, and mountains in the region. Links to these galleries are provided from Trailheads and Hikes as well.
Featured Galleries: Looking Glass Rock, Sam Knob, Whiteside Mountain, Panthertown Valley, Crabtree Falls...
Area Information
Get general area information to round out your trip, including things to consider when planning a hike, information about places to stay and outfitters, and ways to get involved in the area's hiking community.
Area Information Pages: General Considerations, Camping/Lodging, Hiking Outfitters, Weather/Climate, Clubs and Organizations...
News & Updates
Jackrabbit Mountain Trailhead Added
We’ve added the Jackrabbit Mountain trailhead to both MTBikeWNC and HikeWNC. Although the trail system was designed with mountain biking in mind, it’s a pleasant place to hike as well, being close to the campground and lake. For mountain bikers, though, the experience here couldn’t be better. Purpose-built for mountain bikes as a “stacked loop” [...]
Posted on January 25, 2012 11:07 pm
More on the Forest Service Trails Project
There was a great article in the Smoky Mountain News Wednesday about the Forest Service non-motorized trails planning project. A couple of the public input workshops have already been held; I plan on attending the one in Mars Hill this Thursday evening (Jan. 19, in the Peterson Conference Room, Mars Hill College). Regardless of the [...]
Posted on January 16, 2012 9:05 am
New Maps of Mount Mitchell for the New Year
Happy New Year! Just in time to ring in 2012, we’ve added some new maps in the Mount Mitchell area, including a general map of the whole park and surrounding trails, and a map each covering the Camp Alice/Commissary, Old Mitchell Trail, and Mount Mitchell Best Hikes. Each contains downloadable layers for display in your [...]
Posted on January 1, 2012 3:35 pm
More Info on Forest Service Trails Planning in 2012
The National Forests in North Carolina (NFNC) are working on a trail planning project during 2012, and the trails need your help! With federal funding on the wane, it’s becoming more and more difficult for the Forest Service to maintain the trails we all love. In light of that, NFNC is hoping to get public [...]
Posted on December 13, 2011 9:17 pm
Photo and Info of Wintergreen Falls
We posted some more detailed information and a photo of Wintergreen Falls in DuPont State Forest. See the Wintergreen Falls page for all the details!
Posted on December 4, 2011 9:14 pm
Articles
Map ToolTips
We’ve published a change to the GPS maps, which enables tool tips as you hover over trails and markers. It’s hard to label trails on a dynamic map like you would on a printed one, so we feel like this is a good alternative. Click the highlighted trail to open a window with all the trail [...]
Posted on January 20, 2012 7:55 pm
Representing the Internet Community to the Forest Service
On Thursday, January 19, I attended the Trails Strategy Workshop with the National Forests in North Carolina in Mars Hill. Overall, the event was very encouraging and informative. Thanks to Alice Cohen, Trails Strategy Coordinator; Diane Rubiaco, Acting Supervisor; Michael Hutchins, Acting Appalachian District Ranger; Erik Crews; Dispersed Recreation Program Manager; and all the others with [...]
Posted on January 19, 2012 11:01 pm
Spring Hiking at Connemara
You don’t have to be a great appreciator of the arts, poetry, or even Carl Sandburg to enjoy a visit to Connemara – the poet’s historic homestead at Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. From the moment you start down the path to Front Lake, it’s hard not to feel the peacefulness that pervades the [...]
Posted on March 20, 2011 10:17 pm
Opinion & Personal
My Experience with MiMedia
Edit November 2011: I’ve been using MiMedia for over a year now. Some great new music lockers (from Amazon and Google as an example) have shown up since this was written, making MiMedia’s in-browser mp3 feature a bit less distinguishing and the continued lack of organization of your songs a bit more disappointing. But overall, [...]
Posted on October 19, 2010 1:42 pm
Photos in WNC Magazine
Check out some of my photos in print! Several were used in WNC Magazine – of Skinny Dip Falls and Whiteside Mountain, on pages 114, 116 and 117. Need photos for your publication? Drop me a line and let me know. You can find the selection in the photo galleries on both hikewnc.info and mtbikewnc.com.
Posted on June 8, 2008 4:15 pm
Archived news and more articles are on the WNCOutdoors.info Blog.
