Head To This North Carolina Mountain Town For An Unforgettable Summer Adventure

To get to this corner of western North Carolina, you’ll need a steady hand on the steering wheel. Tunnels of green spiral into the hills; loops and turns as tight as hairpins lead you through Transylvania County and into town.

Located in the Appalachian Mountains between Asheville and Lake Toxaway, Brevard sits surrounded by crenellated coves and Arcadian groves that have hosted summer camps for over a century. Each year, young people embark on months of memory making here. Listen closely, and you’ll hear them splashing in lakes, paddling waterways filled with birdcalls and cicada buzz, and following the clip-clop of horses’ hooves along woodland trails.

What To Do In Brevard

Get Outside

The idyllic terrain around Brevard is known as the Land of Waterfalls because it’s home to more than 250 of them. One of the top draws is Pisgah National Forest, which is threaded with the dart and dash of ancient rivers. At Looking Glass Falls, a popular photo op, mornings are busy.

Countless caravans of families park in a long sliver of gravel along U.S. 276 and disembark, taking the stairs to see the 60-foot cascade in all of its tumbling majesty. Some venture to the very bottom, scrambling along the mossy, boulder-strewn creek bed and stepping carefully from stone to stone, close enough to feel the cool spray from the falls. Just above them, carved out over millennia by moving water, striations of prehistoric rock slant upward in parallel lines like music staffs. The roar of crashing water rises along with a fine glaze of mist, the air visible and turning golden as the first slip of sunlight glints over the crest of the falls.

Prepare For Adventures

As you drive farther into the Pisgah wilderness, if your windows are open to catch the breeze, you will begin to hear adrenaline-fueled squeals sweeping through the trees. That’s a telltale sign that you’re approaching Sliding Rock, a cascade forming a natural water feature along a gradual 60-foot-long incline of river rock. Eager-eyed, swimsuit-clad sliders climb to the launch point at the top and wait their turn. Then, after a lifeguard directs them to their place at one of several routes along the plunge, they zoom down the slope and are swiftly deposited into a pool at the base, about 8 feet deep and bracingly cold. Afterward, thoroughly doused, they rush back to the top for yet another go.

The forests overflow with these family-friendly thrills alongside opportunities for hiking, biking, fishing, and climbing, but there are quiet moments to be found here too. Standing at a scenic stop on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which curves along the opposite side of Pisgah National Forest, you see undulating blue-green ridges stretching out before you, a thin cast of fog rising like a veil from the rippling tree line. They unfurl leafy peaks and valleys along the parkway’s overlooks, vistas scored by the distant murmurs of water and wind. There’s a whole world of beauty to be found at this particular elevation.

Where To Eat & Drink In Brevard

In the summer, the town teems with activity. During the rest of the year, it’s a small community with a population of fewer than 8,000 people. But with the warm-weather arrival of campers and their families, musicians, and concertgoers visiting the Brevard Music Center’s annual Summer Institute, and weekend passersby, that number balloons and Brevard’s blocks take on a friendly bustle and hum.

Don't Skip Breakfast

Travelers’ journeys usually begin with breakfast, and the sunny downtown coffee shop Cup & Saucer, the bagel spot The Sunrise Café, and the King Street eatery Morning Social offer caffeine and quick bites to give you energy for the day. They are accompanied by the din of grinding beans, loud talk among old friends, strollers wheeling in and out, and that familiar coffee-house refrain of ceramic cups sliding on saucers.

At Bracken Mountain Bakery, a downtown institution, the loaves themselves have fan clubs. The storefront has long been a favorite stop for baked goods, and the secret is officially out. So you should arrive early to claim your place in line next to the wall of breads dusted in flour and bathed in morning light. Listen to the crinkle of pastries slipping into waxed parchment envelopes, and smell the rising yeasted doughs. Eye the rows of bear claws scattered with almonds and the case packed with Danishes, the flavors of which run a delicious gamut: lime coconut, blueberry cheese, and cherry streusel. Beside it is a display of scones—banana pecan, raspberry, blackberry, and chocolate cherry—and that’s just what’s left after a midsummer rush. When you pay, you will likely be asked, “In a bag or in your hand?” and you might, like so many others, decide to choose the latter.

Enjoy A Delicious Lunch

After an afternoon of exploring, settle in for lunch at an area brewery. Live music drifts through the open-air space at Oskar Blues Brewery, while the broad porches at Ecusta Brewing Company and at the Hub and Pisgah Tavern have panoramic views of the green ridges as well as taps flowing with in-house beers. All three spots offer food—Gordingo’s, which is located inside Ecusta, offers burritos, nachos, and tacos; while Oskar Blues and the Hub and Pisgah Tavern host food trucks on site.   

Make Plans For Dinner

For a memorable dinner, head to Wild Morel, a cozy restaurant inside a charming cottage with a stone fireplace. Chef Tony Pope’s seasonally changing menu is French and Italian leaning and highlights ingredients sourced from the Brevard area, like the Blackened Mountain Trout with lemon beurre blanc sauce. 

Where To Shop In Brevard

Experience The Creative Community

Brevard has become western North Carolina’s artistic capital, not only due to the Brevard Music Center but also because of the profusion of creatives, galleries, and workshops in and around town. 

Not far from Bracken Mountain Bakery, Newfound Artisan has set up shop along West Jordan Street. It opened in 2022 and has become a thriving home for regional makers and their wares. Browse the shelves, which are heavy with handmade, locally produced goods like ceramics and wooden spoons as well as leather items and jewelry made on-site. You can also participate in one of the store’s many hands-on workshops, each of which teaches elements of crafts like leatherwork, carpentry, metalwork, Appalachian broom making, and other time-honored trades.

Just a few steps away is another place that displays a passion for handcrafted items. At Starfangled Press, owner and printmaker Kristen Necessary has built a shrine to paper goods and clever design. The shelves and tables stock posters, cards, and other works made by local artists both in the store, which also serves as a printmaking studio, and elsewhere in the region. All of the pieces incorporate traditional techniques such as etching, screen printing, and engraving. In the corner of the shop sits an enormous antique letterpress that is at least a century old.

Head Downtown

You’ll find even more to experience downtown in the sprawling gear emporium D.D. Bullwinkel’s Outdoors, which can provide you with everything you need for a western North Carolina adventure, from hiking boots and water bottles to sleeping bags and kayaks. 

Where To Stay

Check In To A Bed And Breakfast

The Bromfield Inn, a former home dating back to 1926, is a comfortable stay that's within walking distance to downtown Brevard. Run by mother-daughter team Kari and Sandra Kurtz, the inn has four rooms, one suite, and one loft with en suite bathrooms in each. The two acre property is beautifully landscaped, with places to sit and dine outside. Breakfast is included for all guests, and gluten-free and vegetarian options are available.

Make Your Own Mountain Memories

During your travels, you may hear someone mention the concept of “Brevardness,” a curiously indefinable but nevertheless apparent quality that draws people to this welcoming community and invites them to stay around. It is hard to describe, but you’ll know it when you hear it. You can find it somewhere between the low babble of creeks coursing through the coves and the twang of banjos plucked in corner bars, in the rush of white water static and the footfall of hiking boots on far-flung trails. It’s even in the faint pitter-patter of the tiniest feet—those of the town’s distinctive white squirrels, small flashes of pale fur that, if you’re lucky, you will spy disappearing into the treetops above or racing across a broad lawn.

The mountains have called out to travelers for centuries, but if you spend even a few hours in this landscape, you’ll find more than a calling. Here, they’re singing. Chords and birdsong drift through the summer air, thick with heat and shot through with breezes that send the branches of old trees whispering on the slopes. The question isn’t whether you’ll answer the call but if you’ll join in a new refrain of Brevard’s summer song.