Hello from Room 204 at The Pendry hotel in the Canyons Village of the Park City Mountain Resort in Utah. After a weekend of mostly sunny skies and lush high desert mountains surrounding this bucolic property, it’s currently 65 degrees with a vicious thunderstorm on this otherwise lazy Sunday evening. 

A portion of the Waynesville Greenway is closed to the public starting from the end of Industrial Park Drive on the Asheville Highway side, extending all the way to the end at Lake Junaluska. 

Western North Carolina is a hiker’s paradise.

With so much land protected by national and state forests and parks, those who live in the Western North Carolina area have endless hiking opportunities.

Join the Mountains to Sea Trail community for an annual membership meeting — a meeting that will also offer opportunities to explore trails and nearby towns. 

The Nantahala Ranger District is seeking public input to implement trail rehabilitation and repairs along with other work within the Panthertown Valley.

The tangle of trees and vines beyond the playground fence at North Canton Elementary School used to be a no-go zone for students, years of accumulated balls a testament to a long-time school rule against jumping the fence.  

The Benton MacKaye Trail Association will remove blown-down trees along the Tennessee/North Carolina line during a maintenance trip starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, from the Coker Creek Welcome Center in Tennessee. 

During 2023, volunteers with the Highlands Plateau Greenway contributed 640 hours to create new trails and maintain the existing ones that connect the Highlands community, participating in more than 23 workdays over the past year. 

Declared to be the Year of the Trail more than a year before it even began, 2023 had a lot to live up to.

The standing tradition of starting the New Year off on the trail will continue at N.C. State Parks Monday, Jan. 1, with more than 50 staff-led hikes showcasing the wonders of the Great Trails State.