Awesome state park with plenty of parking, pull offs to play in the creek, and tons of hiking…read moretrails. Dog and kid friendly, no bathrooms available. Lots of wildflower blooms and creekside hiking. Great spot for a picnic and sunning by the water.

Great park to take kids for easy access to wade and swim in a mountain stream. Has trails. Picnic…read morearea is very limited and located too close to porta-potties. Just go for the water!

A stunning way to experience some of the best of the Blue Ridge Mountains…read more A scenic BR Parkway drive leads to an easy trail to the top, where the view is expansive, gorgeous, and seemingly endless.

One of the highest spots on the parkway, the gardens offer a verdant hiking trail. It is often…read morefoggy, and this area feels very much like the Great Smoky Mountains in how water moves around here. The vegetation is quite different than you'll see elsewhere. The parking area for the crag itself is quite large, and if you're lucky enough to catch it on a clear day, the views will be majestic.

This is a beautiful park with a lovely walk near the creek. The outer bands of the hurricane just…read moreleft yesterday so the creek was really high but still beautiful! This is a nice way to get a little exercise and see something pretty in the process. Definitely stop by if you're ever in Bakersville! And while you're at it check out Southern Ridge Cafe because it's awesome and has all the things you could want for a snack or meal!

I love going to walk on the creek walk. Such a pretty walk, and very nice. My daughter loves it as…read morewell.

This is my favorite Buncombe County River Park. Even though there are no restroom facilities here,…read morethe beauty and serenity of the location more than make up for it. In addition to the various natural dams and rocks in the River, someone has created a little kiddie pool to keep the little ones from floating downstream to Marshall. The river splits with part of it going down a channel to the right, forming walnut island. That little section of the river is just absolutely gorgeous, and the county maintains an easily traversed path the Full length of the island. It could be the perfect location for a small informal wedding, with the bride coming down the path from around the bend, a natural canopy complete with beautiful gurgling sounds of the river flowing over the rocks. The park is equipped with barbecue grills and picnic tables, although the tables look pretty uncomfortable. I suggest bringing your own canvas or folding chairs & blanket if you're going to be here for a while. There is plenty of gorgeous grass, and the park seems to be pretty well maintained. This morning, I saw two people fly fishing, in their waders, as well as a couple more people fishing from a small boat on the river. Really, an idyllic scene. No one else was in the park for the entire 30 minutes we were there, so if you want a little privacy and a gorgeous spot, Walnut Island River Park is the place to go. At least until it gets discovered by the masses.

This hike is NOT for the inexperienced. The hike itself deserves the highest rating- ONLY FOR those…read morewho are into high intensity, steep, rocky terrains. I'd suggest this for someone who enjoys camping between the return hike or is very experienced in outdoor endeavors. The falls are beautiful, although not in my opinion worth the 7.6 miles of uphill battle. There is a separate way to get here (0.5 hike from it's own parking lot) The trail connects to a beautiful "Greyson's Overlook" for an additional 2.2 miles. Overall- I made it and I'm still alive.

We had so many options to choose from when hiking yesterday that we just decided to pick one. How…read moredid we miss that this was rated hard?! I'm going to give you my most honest review possible because I think we did not have a clear vision of what to expect. Based off of other people's shoe choices at the top, I decided to wear my tennis shoes. Big mistake. My husband wore his hiking boots. Definitely ate crow on my choice of footwear. Wear hiking boots! The trail was overgrown much of the way. There were a few little rocky river areas to cross over. I managed those with the help of my husband. But my shoes were not appropriate for all of the rocky, muddy, slick areas. And there were many! There were a few trees to go over that had fallen into the pathway. I am a short girl, 5'1", and getting over them on the steep, slick trail was a feat! Also needed my husbands help for that. The trail was very overgrown in some areas, to the point that we weren't sure if we should continue, but we pressed on. There was some uphill in the beginning that had us begging for a little downhill relief. We got that... for awhile. Then, we paid the price for it on the way back. A whole lot of uphill on the way back! My knees, legs, and back were killing me on the way back and I definitely thought about bringing a child back pack to ride on my husbands back for our next hike. We aren't out of shape or inactive people. We enjoy hiking and try to do it often. We have a peloton at home that we do actually use. But this trail was 100% hard and more than we bargained for. I guess we figured that we made it on an accidental 9.5 mile hike the last time we were in town and would be fine. Wrong! Yeah, I'm old. 38. And my husband is 35. We aren't old old but we aren't 18 anymore either. (Thank goodness--that would make him 15! And no thanks to that.) At one point on the hike, we asked a couple that passed us if we were almost at the falls. They said about 15 minutes. I would guess it took us probably another hour to hour and a half to get there. We had to be very careful with my tennis shoes and the slippery rocky trail. Plus, climbing over the downed trees. I'm hoping maybe they were just high and time was confusing for them. I don't see any way they could've gone the mile and a quarter in 15 minutes. Regardless... we made it. The fall was beautiful. The hike kicked our asses. I would not do this hike again. Ever. But if you're down for a difficult, rocky, overgrown, steep hike.... Have at it! I will 100% stay out of your way. The waterfall was a nice treat. Be prepared to pray for the existence of an Uber Air to get back up. (Except those of you who are clearly far more trail savvy than us. I'm sure you will find it much easier than we did. And also... kudos to you!) Apx 7.8 miles of pure torture. Done and done!

Super super friendly family we actually are going to attempt to make reservations for this weekend…read morefor last-minute getaway as a family as a disabled person with type one diabetes. I had a really difficult day that day. We had bad storms and we don't live far from the campground, a couple hours south, but between the storm that not down a tree in our yard, I helped clean up and struggling with my diabetes, and then as I was driving North, a bad lightning storm I wasn't getting any service. I didn't know what to do or where to go. I ended up not spending the night after all, but I can say that communications were wonderful and the facility is beautiful. I did my research before I made a reservation for myself and I was going alone and I haven't been anywhere by myself in 10 years especially since I've become disabled so I ended up having to make other accommodations for the night and didn't get the pleasure of this visit but hopefully there's gonna be something open this weekend and I couldn't have Astro better communication. I can't. I did try to communicate late at night in late into the evening, but they do close their office at five and because of struggles with my diabetes which they have to be dealt with. I can't help that and then the storms here I got a very late start and once I was on my way, and I ran into this lightning storm I had no reception and no visibility. My GPS wasn't working correctly with no reception and this is also in an area that was affected by hurricane Helene and there was flash flooding warnings on the way up to the campground so I did what was the safest best thing for me but I just wanted to say that the prices are wonderful and fair. The facilities is beautiful. The family is kind and very communicative and I will definitely update if we are able to get a spot there this weekend so that our family can go and going with My Husband. I won't have the inability to take care of everything on my Own due to my unique situation so we'll actually make it this time lol I would highly recommend and also I did make it up there the following morning for my getaway and we were all talking about the lightning storm at a couple of places that I went and I was saying what it happened and I didn't make it to my destination where I was gonna stay and everybody that was local was like oh that's the best one out of all of the campgrounds around here if you come back, you need to stay there for sure you missed out and even though you couldn't help it, you know they're an awesome family and they have the nicest place so I did have a good word from local people too, so I'm gonna get a highly recommend for now. I'm sure it will only improve after this weekend. Hopefully there's a spot for us.!

Our favorite NC mountain campground. Amazing sites, brand new, landscaped, I can't say enough…read more Highly recommend

I always went there when my children were younger we loved it went there a few years ago n it was…read moreeven better alot of improvement basketball and golf n putt putt and a big swimming pool they have campground with electric hookups n hot showers with electricity in theose too. Going soon again also a huge kiddie park too

if you're looking for a beautiful, peaceful trail ride in the Smokies, this is your spot! We booked…read moreabout 24hrs in advance and for the first hour had 1 other couple with us, but the second was just us. Our tour guide Liz was AWESOME! She told us so many cool stories about the area, and helped us improve our riding skills. Highly recommend the 2 hour ride!

Had a phenomenal experience on the trails! As an avid horseman, the guides were very informative…read moreand professional + dedicated to their work and these horses. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND the 2 hour or 3 hour ride. It's an experience like no other. I did the 2hr ride and the time went by at a perfect pace. I met some cool people too! I would 100% ride their trail again!