Western North Carolina Trailheads

Looking for a place to start exploring the outdoors in WNC? Look no further than our Trailheads.

What's a Trailhead?

HikeWNC's Trailheads are hubs, or areas, where several trails are convenient to one another or joined in a network.

More than Wikipedia's definition of a Trailhead as "the point at which a trail starts", a Trailhead here could be a campground, a parking area where several trails start, a stream basin, an isolated park, a town, or simply an area with a group of trails convenient to one another. Historically, cities located near the starting point for major paths were also called Trailheads.

The US Forest Service has been referring to these as Trail Complexes in its recent Trail Strategy process.

For this site, a Trailhead can be any of these, but represents a way for us to group information about a place where you can spend a day or more exploring hiking trails without having to drive too far - or at all!

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

List of Trailheads

Profile Trail

Most Difficult
  • Probably the best way to "summit" Grandfather Mountain is via this fantastic trail, and I believe it's one of the finest trails in the state. The trail first winds through lush mid-altitude cove hardwood forests, with a few stream crossings and...
  • 3.1mi, Climbs Steeply, Moderately Rough
Triple Falls
Waterfalls always make a great hiking destination. Here's Triple Falls, in the DuPont State Forest Trailhead.
Steep Trail in Shope Creek
Spring green trees arch over a steep section of an unnamed trail in the Shope Creek area of Pisgah National Forest.
Hickory Nut Falls in late summer
Hickory Nut Falls in late summer. Even as the water flow slows down during dry spells, it never completely stops, as seen here.

Federal Lands

State Lands

City/County Lands

Private Lands

Map of Trailheads

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...