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North Carolina

Nature Hiking in the Southern Appalachian Mountains

Program No. 17288RJ

Hike the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains with a local expert and learn about the region’s abundant wildflowers, natural history and distinctly Appalachian folklore.

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6 days

5 nights

15 meals

5B 5L 5D

Check-in, Registration, Orientation, Welcome Dinner

Hayesville, NC

Hike Pickens Nose and Big Laurel Falls, Evening Program

Hayesville, NC

Hike Park Creek Loop, Evening program

Hayesville, NC

Hike Chunky Gal Trail & Boteler Peak

Hayesville, NC

Hike to the Siler Bald summit

Hayesville, NC

Walk River Cane Trail at Campbell Folk School

Hayesville, NC

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At a Glance

Lace up your hiking boots and explore the scenic trails and natural wonders of the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains in a small group with a hiking naturalist who reveals the wonders of wildflowers and mountain life. Walk through the Nantahala National Forest and spend your evenings immersed in tales of Appalachian folklore and natural history.

Activity Level

Outdoor: Spirited

Hiking 4-8 miles per day on varied terrain. The trails can be steep at times and consist of rocks and roots. Elevations up to 5,000 feet. There may be frequent stops to explore the flora and fauna of the Southern Appalachians.

Small Group

Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.

Best of all, you’ll…

Hike to spots above 5,000 feet like Siler Bald and take advantage of exquisite views.
Walk along beautiful ridges, like Pickens Nose, and experience awe-inspiring sites such as Big Laurel Falls.
On sections of the "Chunky Gal" Trail study the natural history of the area with a local trail and nature expert.

General Notes

The Retreat Difference: This unique, often basic and no-frills experience at a Road Scholar Retreat includes opportunities for light exercise, interaction with the local community for insight into local life, evening entertainment on at least one night and a value-priced single room. This program is coordinated by the Hinton Rural Life Center and operates under special use permit on the Nantahala National Forest on a nondiscriminatory basis. Due to the nature of this program, listening devices are not available.

Featured Expert

All trip experts

Elizabeth Domingue

Elizabeth (Liz) Domingue is a professional naturalist, educator, nature photographer, and guide with extensive experience hiking, backpacking, photographing, and studying the natural world. Her interest in and study of natural history has been her lifelong pursuit and passion. As the originator and operator of Just Get Outdoors, she leads interpretive hikes, photography workshops, and Naturalist Adventure Tours regionally and throughout the US. In all of her programs, Liz encourages awareness, understanding, enjoyment, and stewardship of our natural world.

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Bev and Rod Richardson View biography

Bev and Rod have been visiting the Western NC mountains for over three decades. They travel regularly to see their children and extended family, and enjoy hosting friends and family at home in Florida. Bev is a retired PCUSA minister and serves as parish associate at First Presbyterian New Smyrna Beach; she has been a volunteer police chaplain for over 15 years. Rod is an elder and deacon in the PCUSA church and is retired from Northrup Grumman as a financial planner.

Elizabeth Domingue View biography

Linda Flynn View biography

Linda Flynn retired in Asheville, North Carolina, after 25 years as a designer and 25 years as a therapist. Her current passion is walking international “caminos” — with more than 1,200 miles in the last eight years — and hiking in Western North Carolina. She does so love our own rhododendron and laurel, and appreciates finding wildflowers and secret gardens. Linda is also fond of rocks, mosses, ferns, and waterfalls.

Suggested Reading List (9 books)

Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop

You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.

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Nature Hiking in the Southern Appalachian Mountains

Program Number: 17288

Our Southern Highlanders

by Horace Kephart

A classic book of history and folklore of the mountaineers of the southern Appalachians. Kephart is considered the premier folklorist and historian of the area. First published in the 1910s.

Great Smoky Mountains Wildlife

by James Kavanagh

A folding wildlife guide designed for quick reference in the field. With full-color images and text, it features more than 140 creatures often seen in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Saints At The River

by Ron Rash

Few are better at writing Southern life than Ron Rash. In his second novel, a 12-year-old girl drowns in the Tamassee River. As her hometown is thrown into the national spotlight, the girl's parents demand that her body be recovered. Environmentalists are convinced the operation would cause permanent damage to the river. Winner of the Weatherford Award for Best Novel.

Newcomb's Wildflower Guide

by Lawrence Newcomb

A classic identification guide, which uses a simple dichotomous key for identification. With 1,075 mostly black-and-white drawings, it covers the Northeast and Great Lakes region, south to Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, and most of Tennessee.

Appalachian Trail Trees & Wildflowers

by Waterford Press Inc.

Handy for a pocket or backpack, this durable, fold-out reference features flora and fauna that travelers will likely encounter on the Appalachian Trail.

This is Where We Live, Short Stories by 25 Contemporary North Carolina Writers

by Michael McFee

A collection of short stories from the last 15 years. Includes pieces by Philip Gerard, Heather Ross Miller and June Spence.

Grandma Gatewood's Walk: The Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail

by Ben Montgomery

Emma Gatewood told her family she was going on a walk and left her small Ohio hometown with a change of clothes and less than two hundred dollars. The next anybody heard from her, this genteel, farm-reared, sixty-seven-year-old great-grandmother had walked 800 miles along the 2,050-mile Appalachian Trail. By September 1955 she stood atop Maine’s Mount Katahdin, sang “America, the Beautiful,” and proclaimed, “I said I’ll do it, and I’ve done it.” Driven by a painful marriage, Grandma Gatewood not only hiked the trail alone, she was the first person—man or woman—to walk it twice and three times. At age seventy-one, she hiked the 2,000-mile Oregon Trail. Gatewood became a hiking celebrity, and appeared on TV with Groucho Marx and Art Linkletter. The public attention she brought to the trail was unprecedented. Her vocal criticism of the lousy, difficult stretches led to bolstered maintenance, and very likely saved the trail from extinction.

A Walk in the Woods

by Bill Bryson

The entertaining account of Bryson's hike up the Appalachian trail, combining biting satire with a certain warmth. A fond memoir and a very entertaining read.

Cold Mountain

by Charles Frazier

Set in North Carolina, this is the best-selling novel of a wounded Confederate soldier who abandons the front line and journeys home to his prewar sweetheart. In spare, eloquent prose, Frazier describes the strong bond between a man and the land.

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Nature Hiking in the Southern Appalachian Mountains

Enroll with Confidence

Protecting the Environment

At a Glance

Best of all, you’ll…

General Notes

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