Western North Carolina Trailheads

Find a Place to Hike!

HikeWNC's Trailheads are hubs, or areas, where several trails are clustered together or in a network. The US Forest Service has been referring to these as Trail Complexes in its recent Trail Strategy process. More than Wikipedia's definition of a Trailhead as "the point at which a trail starts", a Trailhead here could be a campground, a convenient parking area where several trails start, a river basin, an isolated park, or simply a group of trails convenient to one another.

Historically, cities located near the starting point for major paths were also called Trailheads. For this site, a Trailhead can be any of these, but represents a place where you can spend a day or more exploring hiking trails without driving too far (or at all!).

Choose a Trailhead from the list or map below to see all the details that we have.

List of Trailheads

Lush growth, wildflowers, and big trees along the Profile trail, in spring. See the Grandfather Mountain State Park Trailhead.
Waterfalls always make a great hiking destination. Here's Triple Falls, in the DuPont State Forest Trailhead.

Federal Lands

State Lands

City/County Lands

  • Buncombe County
    • County Parks
    • Greenways
  • City of Asheville
    • Greenways
    • Asheville Urban Trail
    • City Parks
    • Western North Carolina Nature Center
  • Town of Sylva
  • Town of Canton
    • Rough Creek Watershed
  • Town of Blowing Rock

Private Lands

Map of Trailheads

We're adding all of the trailheads to this interactive map, so you can go directly to the area you're interested in. Roll over a "TH" symbol to see the name, and click for more information about that trailhead area.

Download GPS Data

Click routes, trails, or points on the map to download them individually (on the GPS Data tab).

All Map Data

Routes

KML GPX | GeoJSON

Points

KML GPX | GeoJSON

More information...

Choose By Location

Choose a Trailhead to find an area to hike! If you just want to find a great hike by feature or difficulty, go to the Best Hikes section.