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Photo: Washuotaku, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
It has plunging waterfalls, rugged river gorges, and sheer rock precipices. Great opportunities for backpacking and horseback riding. This section of the Blue Ridge Escarpment spans over 8,000 acres of temperate rainforest and hosts extraordinary biodiversity. The park has 26 waterfalls, the northern shore of Lake Jocassee, and a portion of the 70-mile Foothills Trail.
Gorges State Park is a 7,709-acre (31.20 km2) North Carolina state park in Transylvania County, North Carolina in the United States and along with other conservation lands is part of a 100,000+ acre conservation corridor stretching some 80 miles along the NC/SC state line. The land, along Jocassee Gorges, was purchased by the state from Duke Energy Corporation in 1999. It is North Carolina's westernmost state park and one of the state's newest. The park is adjacent to part of the Pisgah National Forest and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission's Toxaway Game Land. Gorges State Park provides the principal access to the Horsepasture River on these adjoining public lands.
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The largest private lake in NC, and the Sapphire area are in the western portion of the county.
With easy access about 8 mi from town, in Pisgah National Forest on US 276.
About 5 mi further up US 276 from Looking Glass Falls, is the most visited natural attraction in WNC with thousands of "daredevils" sliding approximately 100 ft into an icy mountain pool.
Features many waterfalls including ones made famous from The Last of the Mohicans and 2012's The Hunger Games.