Gorge State Park; the Most Waterfalls in the State

North Carolina’s 7,100-acre Gorges State Park is home to more waterfalls than any other park in the state. Located around 53 miles from Asheville, Gorges State Park is a temperate rainforest with an annual rainfall of more than 80 inches and more like the southern Appalachians when it comes to plants and wildlife. Attractions at this park include camping, hiking, fishing and mountain biking.

Goose Creek State Park: A North Carolina Marshland Paradise

Goose Creek State Park, near the Pamlico Sound in eastern North Carolina, is full of outdoor recreational activities. Hiking, fishing, camping, canoeing, boating, and swimming are all available at the 1,327 acre park, which was once a hiding place for pirates such as Blackbeard and his buddy Stede Bonnet. The park was created in 1974 after local citizens, seeking protection for the land and its wildlife, petitioned the state to purchase the land from a lumber company.

Falls Lake State Park; Camping, Boating and Part of the Mountains-to-the-Sea Trail

Just moment away from Raleigh, North Carolina, Falls Lake State Park waits serenely on 26,000 acres of woodland. With a12,000-acre lake, several camping areas, multiple beaches, fishing docks, boating docks and Blue Jay County Park, there are no shortages to the fun that Falls Lake State Park offers. Another attraction of this park is that it is part of the Mountains-to Sea-Trail which stretches 1,000 miles from Jockey’s Ridge on North Carolina’s Outer Banks to Clingmans Dome in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Eno River State Park; Camping, Hiking and Leg-Slapping Festival

Only a short drive from Durham and Chapel Hill is a secluded wilderness of 3,900 acres; North Carolina’s Eno River State Park. The Eno River is a quick, shallow stream that begins in Orange County, flows through Durham County where it joins the Flat and Neuse Rivers and eventually flows into Falls Lake. Activities at Eno River State Park include camping, canoeing, hiking and fishing. Individuals, families and groups come from all over for the events and programs offered at this park. There are night classes like astronomy, water activities like fishing, water education which includes water testing, tree identification, programs like the Junior Ranger Program, teacher workshops, stewardship and more.

Elk Knob State Park

Elk Knob State Park is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Watauga County, just north of Boone, North Carolina, and it is one of the newest state parks in the North Carolina park system. The Nature Conservancy in a partnership with several local land owners purchased Elk Knob and 1100 acres of surrounding land and donated it to the state. In 2003, the state designated the area a state park. The Nature Conservancy also purchased additional land in the vicinity and donated some of it to the park to bring it to its current size of 1800 acres. Developers began building in the surrounding mountains and valleys in the 1990′s, and local citizens were concerned that the area’s unique natural formations and ecology would be lost. Thus, they sought the assistance of the Nature Conservancy and the state to ensure that Elk Knob would be preserved in its natural state for future generations.