The Great Smoky Mountains National Park offers activities for visitors of various ages and interests. Recommended activities include camping, hiking the park's more than 800 miles of trails, picnicking, sightseeing, fishing, auto touring, horseback riding, nature viewing, and photographic opportunities abound.

The Cherokee Indian Reservation , or Qualla Boundry , has many cultural attractions, including the Oconaluftee Indian Village, The Museum of the Cherokee Indian, "Unto These Hills" Outdoor Drama, Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, and Cherokee Heritage Museum and Gallery. It also has Harrah's Cherokee Casino.

Take a trip to Bryson City, or Fontana Lake on the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad. Excursions include day trips, special Thomas the Tank Engine rides, mystery theatre or gourmet dinner trains.

The whole family can search for treasure at the Gem Mining shops in Franklin. Look for beautiful native rhodolite garnets, kyanite, pyrope garnets, and quartz, along with all colors of sapphires, pink and red rubies.

For a day trip to Asheville, visit the Biltmore Estate -- House, Gardens, and Winery.

Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest .... "I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree...." In this most beautiful, unmarred, and natural setting, that was the uncharted hunting ground of the Cherokee Indians, virgin trees grow more than 100 feet tall and some 20 feet around the base.

Oconaluftee Visitor Center is open year round. The visitor center features the adjacent Mountain Farm Museum that contains a fascinating collection of log structures, including a farmhouse, barn, smokehouse, applehouse, corn cribs, and others. Demonstrations of farm life are conducted seasonally.

Eat a family style dinner at the Historic Jarrett House Restaurant. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, this beautiful house is one of the oldest inns in Western North Carolina

Go rafting and tubing in the Natahala River.

Great Smoky Mountains golf is played in the Highlands where Western North Carolina meets East Tennessee. Here, the Great Smokies weave in and out of the Blue Ridge, creating the stage for a great game of golf; these 23 courses offer the best in Tennessee & North Carolina golf. This magnificent setting attracts golfers drawn by our scenic beauty and pleasant four-season climate, but the primary attraction to mountain golf are lush fairways, sprawling bent grass greens, cool breezes, and a gently undulating terrain reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands where the game originated 200 years ago.

Trout Fishing in the Smoky Mountain National Park includes Brook Trout, Brown Trout, and Rainbow Trout. Fishing within the Park requires a license. There are also many local trout farms, which will supply the fishing gear.

Activities in Cullowhee, North Carolina, the community that's home to Western Carolina University, sits in a scenic valley in the Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina.

Blue Ridge Parkway follows the Appalachian Mountain chain and provides seemingly endless views of many parallel ranges connected by cross ranges and scattered hills. From Shenandoah National Park, the Parkway follows the Blue Ridge Mountains, eastern rampart of the Appalachians, for 355 miles. Then, for the remaining 114 miles, it skirts the southern end of the massive Black Mountains, weaves through the Craggies, the Pisgahs, and the Balsams, and ends in the Great Smokies at Cherokee, N.C.

Another atraction informatios:

* Western NC Attractions *
* Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge Events *
* Dillsboro Village *
* Asheville Chamber of Commerce *
* Highlands Chamber of Commerce *
* Gatlinburg Chamber of Commerce, Tennessee *