Places to stay near attractions in Bryson City / Nantahala

Bryson City, North Carolina is the seat of Swain County and one of the two southern gateways to Great Smoky Mountains National Park (the other being Cherokee). The town sits along the Tuckasegee River at the mouth of the Deep Creek watershed, and it is the depot town for the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, whose Nantahala Gorge and Tuckasegee River excursions run year-round and turn into the Polar Express in November and December.

The Deep Creek entrance to the national park is a 2-mile drive from downtown and delivers three waterfalls (Tom Branch, Indian Creek, Juney Whank) on a short loop, plus one of the park's best tubing runs. The Nantahala Outdoor Center and the Nantahala Gorge sit 13 miles west on U.S. 74 and anchor the region's whitewater rafting industry on the Class II–III Nantahala River.

Bryson City is the base for Fontana Lake and Fontana Dam — the tallest dam east of the Rockies — where the Appalachian Trail crosses on its way north, and it is the closest town to the Road to Nowhere / Lakeshore Trail into the national park's remote Hazel and Eagle Creek watersheds.