Area Activities & Attractions:

Great Smoky Mountain National Park
Cherokee Indian Reservation
The Great Smoky Mountain Railway
Scenic Golf Courses
Trout Fishing
Hiking
White Water Rafting
Canoeing/Kyaking
Horse back riding
Antiquing 
The Biltmore House
Waterfalls, Creeks, Thousands of Acres of wilderness
Fontana Lake
Fontana Dam
Boating
Harrah's Casino
Hunting
Biking
Day trips to Gaitlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Dollywood

Fontana Lake has been called the best-kept secret in the mountains.

The 31-mile long, 10,700-acre lake has more than 240 miles of shoreline. The lake forms part of the southern border of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the northern border of part of the Nantahala National Forest.   Several rivers and creeks feed into Fontana Lake.  To name a few: The Little Tennessee, The Nantahala, The Tuckaseegee, and The Alarka. The lake has many inlets into coves and many islands formed from former mountain peaks, especially near the eastern end.

Fontana Lake is unique in many ways. Unlike most lakes in the area, shoreline development has been kept to a minimum. More than 90 percent of the land around Fontana Lake is owned by either the National Park Service or the US Forest Service

Fontana Lake provides a number of recreational diversions including fishing, boating and water skiing. And the scenery from the lake is unmatched. Those fortunate enough to go boating on Fontana Lake have a unique perspective of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. At places the view is unobstructed from the lake level to the top of towering Clingmans Dome, the Park's highest peak.

In addition to recreation, the pristine waters of the lake provide some of the only access into the most remote areas of the National Park. When water levels are normal, and indeed barring any water levels so long as the individual is able to traverse the cold and unstable creek and lake bed up into the coves, a boat may be used to access such remote trailheads as Noland Creek.

From the observation tower of Clingman's Dome, on a clear day the lake can be seen over a mile below, which has a normal surface elevation of 1710 ft. Highway 28 roughly parallels the southern shore of the lake and Highway 19 between Bryson City and Wesser/Lauada briefly skims an inlet at the extreme southeastern edge. The unfinished Lakeview Drive roughly parallels the north shore of the lake.