Bryson City, twenty minutes away

Great Smoky Mountains Railroad

Trains leave the downtown depot for the Nantahala Gorge (about four and a half hours, with a layover at the river) and the Tuckasegee River run to Dillsboro. Open-air cars are the move in October.

The Polar Express, November to early January

The railroad’s Polar Express runs from early November into the first days of January and sells out weeks ahead. Bryson City and Dillsboro rooms fill with it. We are 20 minutes from the depot, quiet after the crowds, and the hot tub is warm when you get back. Book the train first, then the room.

Deep Creek

Three waterfalls on a 2.4-mile loop, two miles from downtown, inside the national park. Tube rentals line the road to the entrance all summer; the upper creek is the fast one.

Nantahala Outdoor Center

Eight miles of Class II–III whitewater through the gorge, ending at Nantahala Falls, guided or in your own inflatable kayak. About three hours on the water. The Appalachian Trail crosses the river at the outpost, and River’s End restaurant looks straight at the last rapid. The season runs roughly March through October.

Downtown afterward

Everett Street is four blocks of gear shops, galleries and places to sit outside.

• Mountain Layers Brewing, with a rooftop deck over the river
• Bryson City Outdoors, an outfitter with a taproom on the square
• Bryson City Brewing, beside the depot
• Cork & Bean, a downtown bistro that is good for a slow dinner
• Darnell Farms, a produce stand and pumpkin patch on the Tuckasegee, 10 miles from the lodge

Further out

Lakeview Drive, the Road to Nowhere, ends at a tunnel you can walk through six miles from town. Fontana Dam, the tallest in the eastern US, is an hour and ten minutes away.

Eat afterward

Cork & Bean, the Bistro at the Everett Hotel, and whatever is on the smoker at the breweries.