Bryson City is the gateway to the nation’s most popular National Park and is only a few minutes from iconic mountain biking and whitewater rafting, making it the ideal basecamp for adventure.
Day 1
Morning
Hiking: Bryson City makes an exceptionally good start for exploring the hundreds of miles of hiking trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A great way to introduce yourself is with a hike up Deep Creek just outside of town. Two loop options – 2.4 miles and 5 miles – take you up a narrow canyon on a gravel road closed to traffic and return you via single-track hiking trail. Neither option is especially challenging and both offer scenic rewards, including three waterfalls: Juney Whanks, Indian Creek and Tom Branch.
Note: If you’re smitten by Deep Creek’s waterfalls, they’re only the beginning. Cascades abound in the region, some requiring a hike in, others are roadside attractions.
Afternoon
Tubing: You can tube on three rivers in the vicinity, the Oconaluftee, the Tuckasegee and Deep Creek. Hike Deep Creek in the morning and you can hang out and rent a tube for the afternoon. You’ll walk anywhere from a half mile to a mile up Deep Creek Trail, then float back to where you started. Want to go again? Most rentals are all day. Tubing season is generally from early May to past Labor Day, depending upon the weather.
Evening
Elk Viewing: Bryson City offers some of the best nightlife around, starting around dusk at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center a half hour out of town. The gloaming is when the Great Smokies’ special elk herd begins foraging the adjoining meadow and along the Oconaluftee River. The herd is special because the area’s elk population disappeared more than 200 years ago but was reintroduced by the National Park Service in 2001. The herd has flourished, and the stately creatures give a good show, especially between mid-September and late October, when rutting male elk bugle and battle one another in the competitive mating season.
Day 2
Morning
Mountain biking: Tsali Recreation Area. Even before mountain biking was a thing, there was Tsali. The few fat tire practitioners of the time viewed Tsali as the holy land of pedaling, a trail system that pioneered the notion of flow and mastered the multiuse art of deftly managing mountain bikers, hikers and equestrians on the same trails by instituting alternate days of use. Today, 42 miles of trail in four loops still offer some of the best flow riding in the Southeast. Plan to spend at least half a day.
Getting there from Bryson City: Take U.S. 19 south for 9 miles to NC 28 west. Turn right on NC 28. Go 5 miles and look for sign on right.
Afternoon
Whitewater rafting on the Nantahala River: Make it an iconic day of adventure by rafting through the Nanty’s namesake gorge, where frisky Class II and III water is interrupted on brief occasions by placid stretches to let you catch your breath. Take a guided trip or DIY in a forgiving (for the most part) inflatable duckie kayak.
Day 3
Great Smoky Mountains National Park: If ever there was a park that needs no introduction, this is it. For starters, it’s the country’s most visited National Park, drawing 12.2 million visitors in 2024. That, you may be thinking, must make for big crowds. Not necessarily. For one, the park covers more than a half million acres. Then there’s the fact that most visitors seldom venture far from their car; with 150 trails covering 848 miles, that’s a lot of ground to cover – a lot of ground that’s seldom covered.
Learn more about what you can do in Bryson City.
Photo:
Elk photo from: Explore Bryson City