Links and Resources
You also have to hope like Hell it doesn’t rain, because the
road traverses steep slopes and that red clay provides very
little traction when wet. If you have a two-wheel drive car
and it rains while you’re there, you may be staying awhile
unless you hitch a ride out with one of the four-wheeler
caravans that drive the Gorge Rim Road for fun. In a
Hyundai, it’s exciting, but I wouldn’t say it’s fun.
Most people who walk the Gorge break it up into bits and enjoy the camping as much as the hike. If you want to say you’ve walked the whole stretch in one piece, you’ll need two cars, one to park at each end. There’s no shuttle service unless you want to hire some local person and risk the "Deliverance" experience. Not that this will happen, of course, but the dark side of the Gorge includes stories of the many people who died there, including the white man -- William Linville -- who claimed to have discovered it.
Most people who walk the Gorge break it up into bits and enjoy the camping as much as the hike. If you want to say you’ve walked the whole stretch in one piece, you’ll need two cars, one to park at each end. There’s no shuttle service unless you want to hire some local person and risk the "Deliverance" experience. Not that this will happen, of course, but the dark side of the Gorge includes stories of the many people who died there, including the white man -- William Linville -- who claimed to have discovered it.
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The Linville Gorge Wilderness Area
Website Themes by CoffeeCup Software
Hitting the Road to the Modern Wilderness
Tripping!
If you visit only the most famous
places you'll find plenty of crowds, but
there's a lot of remote country people
skip just because it's not well known.
Don't tell anyone you found it unless
you want more company.
Photo by Mr. Write at MorgueFile.com
Linville Gorge
Links
LinvilleGorge.net
Trail Data and current conditions along with interactive maps and visitor forums.
Recreation.gov
Detailed directions to the Linville Falls area, facilities, and camping information.
Ray's Weather Center
Archived photos depicting good reasons not to camp too close to the river, plus current weather in the area.
The Daddy
Chris Van Leuven details one of the best rock-climbing features of Linville Gorge for Climbing Magazine.
LinvilleGorge.net
Trail Data and current conditions along with interactive maps and visitor forums.
Recreation.gov
Detailed directions to the Linville Falls area, facilities, and camping information.
Ray's Weather Center
Archived photos depicting good reasons not to camp too close to the river, plus current weather in the area.
The Daddy
Chris Van Leuven details one of the best rock-climbing features of Linville Gorge for Climbing Magazine.
Back when I was new to the internet and thought that
meeting people here in the cyber world was a lot like
meeting people in the real world, I decided to take a trip
back East and say Hi! to a few of the folks I was chatting with
daily. Of course that seems terribly silly now, but at the
time I made that trip I was amazed at how many of them
were either not at home or lived at entirely different
locations than they’d said. But it was an interesting trip
which took me into new country and at the
recommendation of the two people who did have the
courage to open their front door I made a return trip via
the Blue Ridge Highway. What I really wanted to see was
Brown Mountain, which has a reputation for ghost light
activity -- and according to my brave friends, held a buried
spaceship waiting to take home the faithful who actually
found it. I was skeptical, but I did promise I’d look.
Springtime in the Gorge at Wiseman's View -- Wikipedia photo.
Brown Mountain was hardly spectacular, at least when seen from the road where people park by the hundreds at night if
the lights are active. I did absolutely fall in love with the general area of the Blue Ridge, however, spending a few days
car camping at some of the scenic areas and planning future backpacking trips when I had more time and different
preparations. A cursory inspection of the area yielded no likely locations for buried UFO’s, which are probably lots
more common when you spend your life at the keyboard and don’t actually look out the window much. Not that I don’t
believe in such things, but I do believe getting out and looking for unusual things separates the wheat from the chaff
fairly quickly, or in this, case filters out the real from the unreal.
I had never spent time in the Appalachians before that trip and was surprised at the grandeur of the country. I’d thought all the real mountains on this continent were out West. That’s not so. If you drive to Boone, N.C., and head west on the Blue Ridge Parkway you’ll find some pretty respectable mountains, and if you drive a little Hyundai like me you’ll need to baby your brakes because a Hyundai apparently wasn’t built for this particular application.
Down towards Linville you’ll find something more rare than mountains -- the Linville Gorge, one of the sacred places of the Cherokee nation before most of the population got shifted west to Oklahoma. It lies outside official Cherokee land now, but the Gorge and the mountains that tower above it are still sacred enough. If you spend time there, unusual things still happen, and I’ve spent enough time there to know. The ghost lights aren’t limited to Brown Mountain, a few miles east, and are actually fairly common sights in the canyon and along the canyon rim. I’ve seen them, and so have people who camped and traveled with me. They seem friendly enough and add considerable mystery to the ordinary aspects of a camping trip.
I had never spent time in the Appalachians before that trip and was surprised at the grandeur of the country. I’d thought all the real mountains on this continent were out West. That’s not so. If you drive to Boone, N.C., and head west on the Blue Ridge Parkway you’ll find some pretty respectable mountains, and if you drive a little Hyundai like me you’ll need to baby your brakes because a Hyundai apparently wasn’t built for this particular application.
Down towards Linville you’ll find something more rare than mountains -- the Linville Gorge, one of the sacred places of the Cherokee nation before most of the population got shifted west to Oklahoma. It lies outside official Cherokee land now, but the Gorge and the mountains that tower above it are still sacred enough. If you spend time there, unusual things still happen, and I’ve spent enough time there to know. The ghost lights aren’t limited to Brown Mountain, a few miles east, and are actually fairly common sights in the canyon and along the canyon rim. I’ve seen them, and so have people who camped and traveled with me. They seem friendly enough and add considerable mystery to the ordinary aspects of a camping trip.
The Linville Gorge Trail runs along the bottom of the
canyon for about 22 miles, and although it’s a little rough in
places, follows some fairly scary ledges sometimes, and
requires a variety of skills including brushwhacking and
crawling, a strong hiker with a light load can walk that
distance in a day. That’s a shame, traveling that fast in such
a nice place, because the Gorge Trail passes many good
campsites along the way. More than half a dozen short trails
wind down the canyon sides at intervals of a few miles and
both fishing and scenery are excellent. There are a few
geo-caches hidden in the canyon if you like looking for
those, but you’ll find lots more on the short trails and at the
scenic points in the countryside above the canyon. The one
Alice and I looked for on our last visit had been stashed at a
put-in point for the few brave kayakers who haul their boats
and paddles down the trail to the dangerous waters of the
upper river.
Linville Falls at the head of the Gorge -- Wikipedia photo
Although we concluded the cache had been washed away by the hurricane rains the season before, the hunt took us into
new locations we’d probably not have visited otherwise. The Gorge is rough country, and if you get off the trail you’ll
find the going tough and progress slow. It’s good to have a partner and common sense, because a slip among the
boulders could put you in a bad spot with a broken leg. Even though the Gorge is well traveled, finding a wanderer there
wouldn’t be easy.
But you’ll find an unusually pleasant experience in the canyon, where both Rangers and people are friendly. I’ve even been known to speak to strangers on occasion while I’m there, because the place puts me in a good mood and I’m better able to tolerate people. You probably won’t find crowds if you avoid holidays and weekends, but the hiking population is controlled by permits during the busy times. If you travel the canyon on weekdays that’s not required, although rules may change if the hiking population increases. It's a good idea to call the Ranger Station at Linville Falls to make sure you won't be bending the rules.
The tricky part isn’t the hike itself, which offers the usual interesting hazards of unpredictable water levels, black bears, and rattlesnakes as well as heights and tricky switchbacking trails. What’s tougher is getting to the trailhead with your car, and getting out again, especially if you don’t own a four-wheel drive vehicle. The road is poorly maintained, narrow, and skirts a freakishly narrow ridgetop in places. The potholes are big enough to swallow a Hyundai and sometimes something bigger, and a straight line course down that road will just mean bottoming out and stranding yourself. You have to drive creatively.
But you’ll find an unusually pleasant experience in the canyon, where both Rangers and people are friendly. I’ve even been known to speak to strangers on occasion while I’m there, because the place puts me in a good mood and I’m better able to tolerate people. You probably won’t find crowds if you avoid holidays and weekends, but the hiking population is controlled by permits during the busy times. If you travel the canyon on weekdays that’s not required, although rules may change if the hiking population increases. It's a good idea to call the Ranger Station at Linville Falls to make sure you won't be bending the rules.
The tricky part isn’t the hike itself, which offers the usual interesting hazards of unpredictable water levels, black bears, and rattlesnakes as well as heights and tricky switchbacking trails. What’s tougher is getting to the trailhead with your car, and getting out again, especially if you don’t own a four-wheel drive vehicle. The road is poorly maintained, narrow, and skirts a freakishly narrow ridgetop in places. The potholes are big enough to swallow a Hyundai and sometimes something bigger, and a straight line course down that road will just mean bottoming out and stranding yourself. You have to drive creatively.
Local Cherokee warriors disagreed with his right to be on their holy ground and settled the argument on the spot. Aside
from the accidents that always stack up in treacherous country, the Gorge is home to a couple of murders -- a young
couple camped there who were killed by an unfriendly visitor. The cliffs along the Gorge once played a part in D-Day
training. Commandos preparing for the bluffs in Normandy practiced in secret in the Carolina mountains. The most
popular rock climbs may be already in use if you arrive late on a busy weekend.
Getting There: Just south of the small crossroads town of Linville Falls, North Carolina, at mile marker 316.3 on the Blue Ridge Parkway, take the turnoff onto the Linville Recreational Area spur road and follow it for two miles. You'll find the local Ranger Station and a place to buy maps and books about the area, as well as the trailhead to the Linville Falls trail and overlook. Follow the Kistler Memorial Highway south to the many trailheads and viewpoints along the Gorge rim.
Getting There: Just south of the small crossroads town of Linville Falls, North Carolina, at mile marker 316.3 on the Blue Ridge Parkway, take the turnoff onto the Linville Recreational Area spur road and follow it for two miles. You'll find the local Ranger Station and a place to buy maps and books about the area, as well as the trailhead to the Linville Falls trail and overlook. Follow the Kistler Memorial Highway south to the many trailheads and viewpoints along the Gorge rim.
Linville Gorge below Table Mountain -- Wikipedia photo.