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CURRENT Features

Another World: Loughran Cabe Goes Gloriously Underwater

This young photographer uses river snorkeling to raise awareness around Blue Ridge waterways.

Water Wonders of the Blue Ridge

Water defines, shapes and highlights the land of the region where we live. It also provides the key ingredient for a great quantity of our favorite outdoor fun. Let’s go splashin’ in the mountains!

Rivers & Waterfalls: A Photo Essay

Our contributing photographers know some very inviting spots.

Lake Toxaway, North Carolina: Birth, Dearth, Rebirth

This water-birthed mountain town hosted some of the country’s wealthiest socialites before being washed away in a record-breaking but murkily documented flood, more than 100 years ago.

Winter / Holiday 2024 Festivals & Events Guide

Our biggest compendium of festivals and events ever brings you hundreds of perfect gatherings for fun across 7 mountain states!

Current Issue

Bluehead Chub. Directly below a footbridge on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia, a male bluehead chub (Nocomis leptocephalus) is in the process of building a nest mound, a giant pile of thousands of pebbles in which a female chub will lay her eggs. Each spring, male chub spend days on end collecting stones with their mouths and carefully piling them together, a behavior which is fascinating to watch. Numerous other species have also evolved to spawn in the chub’s mound, and will swarm in the hundreds over the mounds.

Another World: Loughran Cabe Goes Gloriously Underwater

This young photographer uses river snorkeling to raise awareness around Blue Ridge waterways.
Lake Keowee in Seneca, South Carolina, has 18,500 acres of water fun.

Water Wonders of the Blue Ridge

Water defines, shapes and highlights the land of the region where we live. It also provides the key ingredient for a great quantity of our favorite outdoor fun. Let’s go splashin’ in the mountains!
The Blue Hole waterfall is nestled in the Cherokee National Forest, in the Holston Mountain area near Elizabethton, Tennessee. From the photographer: “It is a short but very steep hike down from the parking area. On this summer day I lucked out to find the rosebay rhododendron in bloom but starting to lose blossoms into the water, making for a picturesque scene. There are several falls in a short distance down Mill Creek, but the one plunging into the Blue Hole is the main attraction. It’s a wonderful place to take a chilly plunge or just dip your toes during the summer.”

Rivers & Waterfalls: A Photo Essay

Our contributing photographers know some very inviting spots.
Present-day Lake Toxaway is beautiful in the fall.

Lake Toxaway, North Carolina: Birth, Dearth, Rebirth

This water-birthed mountain town hosted some of the country’s wealthiest socialites before being washed away in a record-breaking but murkily documented flood, more than 100 years ago.
Winterfest, November 7-February 16, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Winter / Holiday 2024 Festivals & Events Guide

Our biggest compendium of festivals and events ever brings you hundreds of perfect gatherings for fun across 7 mountain states!
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Departments

At Coopers Rock State Forest, new Stargazer cabins invite guests to look up through skylights and telescopes.
Country Roads

Even Closer to Almost Heaven

New Stargazer cabins at Coopers Rock State Forest offer a skyward escape in the mountains of West Virginia.

June 29, 2026
©Duncan Seaman
Country Roads

A Mountain Tradition Turns 90 

Visitors flock to Galax, Virginia, each summer for the Old Fiddlers’ Convention, a days-long celebration of Appalachian music.

June 29, 2026
Synchronous Fireflies
Creature Feature

The Light Fantastic

Fireflies are struggling with the effects of artificial light.

June 29, 2026

CALENDAR OF EVENTS