Facts About North Carolina Mountains

Meg Jernigan, Leaf Group

The Blue Ridge and the Smoky Mountains are the major ranges of the southern Appalachians in western North Carolina. The state’s mountains are topped by rugged peaks and smooth balds that are home to biomes with plant and animal life more commonly found in the northeastern United States and Canada. Forests above 5,500 feet are remnants of the last ice age.

Mount Mitchell

Mount Mitchell, at 6,684 feet, is the tallest peak east of the Rocky Mountains. The summit and the 1,855-acre state park that surrounds the mountain can be reached from the scenic Blue Ridge Parkway. Part of the Black Mountain range, Mount Mitchell averages more than 100 inches of snow each winter and the peak is cloud-covered eight out of 12 days. Six of the 10 highest mountains in the eastern United States are in this range. The distinct flora of Mount Mitchell includes a number of rare plants and animals like the northern flying squirrel and the bobcat. The Fraser fir forests that were damaged by a combination of acid rain, logging and blights are now filled in with spruce, cherry, birch and ash. Birders have documented 91 species, many of them characteristic of more northern regions.

Grandfather Mountain

The 5,946-foot Grandfather Mountain, at the intersection of Avery, Caldwell and Wautaga counties, is topped by a swinging bridge that connects two peaks. On clear days it’s possible to see Charlotte, North Carolina, more than 100 miles to the southwest. The Linville and Watauga Rivers originate on Grandfather, and the Linville Viaduct, the last section of the Blue Ridge Parkway to be built, skirts it. A remnant of the vast spruce forests that used to cover the area is found at the top of the mountain. Vacationers took the narrow gauge Tweetsie Railroad to the mountain and the surrounding communities until a flood in 1940 wiped out the tracks. Parts of the movie Forrest Gump were filmed at Grandfather Mountain.

Roan Mountain

Roan Mountain is not a single peak but a five-mile long ridge that straddles the North Carolina/Tennessee border. It ranges from a high of 6,286 feet at Roan High Knob to a low of 5,500 feet at Carver’s Gap. Folklore has it that the mountain was named after Daniel Boone’s roan horse. Boone traveled the mountain range frequently, and a nearby town is named after him. The ridge that makes up Roan Mountain supports hundreds of acres of rhododendrons that bloom in early summer. The area was heavily logged until the late 1930s, and the forests returned once the timber industry stopped cutting. In the late 1950s, the woolly adelgid was introduced, and the insect killed thousands of Fraser firs. The Appalachian Trail travels the ridge top’s forests and open grassy areas called balds.