Boone is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in the extreme northwestern part of North Carolina and is the county seat of Watauga County. With four major ski resorts all within 15 miles of the city, Boone has become well-known among skiing enthusiasts as being one of the most important skiing and snowboarding centers east of the Rockies.
Ski Resorts
Beech Mountain is the highest ski area in the Eastern states. Its five double chairlifts, two quads and a J-bar can handle up to 9,300 skiers an hour. A total of 14 trails include four black runs, a powder area, a terrain park, a freestyle area and a play area. The mountain has a vertical drop of 830 feet.
Sugar Mountain Resort is the largest resort in the area with nine chairlifts, a tow bar and a carpet. The vertical drop here is 1,200 feet and the longest trail 1 1/2 miles. The 19 trails include seven for beginners, three black runs and a terrain park.
Appalachian Mountain Ski Resort now has 10 slopes and three terrain parks that are served by five chairlifts. Both Beech and Appalachian offer night skiing.
Hawkesnest is a small resort that now only caters for snow tubing. With four separate tubing areas of between 400 and 1,000 feet in length, it has become a popular weekend family venue.
Lodging
There are a limited number of rooms at the Top of Beech Lodge on Beech Mountain, and the Beech Alpen Inn is convenient to the slopes and has a restaurant and bar on the premises. The Inn offers striking views of the Blue Ridge Mountains in a rustic Tudor-style mansion. Sugar Mountain has limited accommodation on the mountain and Appalachian has a number of chalets on the mountain that can be rented. There are numerous inns, motels, lodges and hotels in and around the city of Boone.
After the Slopes
Apres ski is always an important element of any skiing vacation. All of the resorts have their own restaurants and stores at the base of their slopes. In the city of Boone and the local towns and villages in the area you'll find plenty of restaurants, bars and clubs. Some of the specialist restaurants in Boone include Angelica's Vegetarian Restaurant & Juice Bar, which serves vegetarian and vegan dishes, which you will also find at the Red Onion Cafe and the Hob Nob Farm Cafe.
Summertime Activities
Three of the four resorts are four-season resorts that are open year-round and offer a number of summer activities for the outdoor enthusiast. Beech Mountain Resort has a standing arrangement with Lees-McRae College's Cycling Program and holds downhill mountain bike events every year. At Hawkesnest, you'll find 1 1/2 miles of ziplines that give you a choice of 10 separate cables for thrilling rides over creeks and trees. Sugar Mountain has a golf course, and you can also play tennis during the summer months. The Blue Ridge Mountains have hundreds of miles of trails suitable for biking, hiking and horseback riding as well as many caverns and waterfalls to explore.
How to Get There
The nearest approach to Boone is by way of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which connects the city to Asheville where the closest regional airport is located. Asheville Regional Airport has regular flights to and from Charlotte and Atlanta, and connections with Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Newark, La Guardia and Orlando. Asheville also has convenient road connections to the east and west through Interstate 40.
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