We visited Bryson City in May 2025 as part of our May Carolinas loop.

Bryson City is a small town tucked up into the mountains an hour west of Asheville, 20 minutes west of Sylva, 40 minutes north of Franklin, and 1.5 hours northwest from our last stop, Lake Toxaway. We absolutely loved it! Bryson City calls itself the “Outdoor Adventure Capital of the Great Smoky Mountains,” and it has sneaky backdoor access to hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, rafting on the Nantahala River, and fishing and paddling on Fontana Lake, in addition to a cute downtown. Full disclosure: I’m writing this post about our May visit to Bryson City during our second visit to Bryson City in October!

Campground

We camped at Big Bear’s RV Campground, just a couple minutes outside of the downtown Bryson City area, in a pretty creekside spot. Sites are full-hookup, but the campground doesn’t have public restrooms or showers. Our campsite didn’t have good enough wifi for a video call, so J had to do a meeting on the patio at Bryson City Outdoors. (We have since gotten Starlink so our campsite internet situation is now very different! More about that in a future post…)

Hiking

Bryson City is the gateway to the Deep Creek section of GSMNP. It’s a unique little island of waterfall-centric hiking trails, with one long-distance trail leading all the way to Clingmans Dome/Kuwohi, the tallest point in Tennessee. We hiked four trails in the park, all under a twenty minute drive from home.

Our first hike in GSMNP was the Deep Creek Loop Trail, passing three awesome waterfalls in five miles in the pouring rain. It was phenomenal, if a bit crowded.

In the morning we climbed up to Lonesome Pine Overlook, grateful for a break in the rain. The trail was a tough 3.5-mile climb, but we loved it for the views and solitude.

Goldmine Loop Trail is a four-mile lollipop route through a unique tunnel and a pretty forest, down to Fontana Lake. The water was too high after all the rain we’d had so we didn’t make it all the way to the lake, but still enjoyed the hike. The tunnel is part of The Road to Nowhere, a highway promised but not delivered after the formation of Fontana Lake in the ’60s.

Nearby Noland Creek Trail leads down to Fontana Lake, past old homestead sites from the early days of the National Park. It’s a short two-mile round trip hike.

Eating and drinking

Food

Our first stop in town after setting up the Airstream was Bryson City Bakery for lunch. They don’t make sandwiches, and pickens were slim later in the day, so J got the last piece of breakfast casserole, and I got cookie and made lunch at home. The cookie was goooooood!

We’d been intrigued by tales of Nantahala Outdoor Center for something like thirty years! So since it’s only twenty minutes from Bryson City, we drove over to check it out, and stayed for lunch. What a cool place! After wandering around the huge paddling/outfitting/lodging campus, we sat down at River’s End Restaurant to eat overlooking the river. Food was good, and the people-watching was fab.

The Rice Wagon, the Hawaiian food truck at our favorite brewery in town, had us really excited, but my bowl wasn’t quite as wonderful as I hoped. I think I ordered wrong and am going to try again tomorrow (reminder: I’m writing this in October); I’ll report back!

La Dolce Vita was our choice for breakfast our last morning in Bryson City. J had another meeting, so sat in the cafe with a latte, bagel sandwich, and wifi, while I prepped the Airstream for departure at the campground. When I picked him up post-meeting, I also picked up a pimento cheese biscuit sandwich, and HOLY MOLY.

Drink

Mountain Layers Brewing was our favorite drinking spot in town for its awesome rooftop and delicious beer. I loved their berry cheesecake sour, which probably sounds terrible to most of you, but it was fantastic: tart and not syrupy sweet.

Our second favorite place for a drink was, surprisingly, an outdoor gear store. Bryson City Outfitters has a small, laid-back craft beer bar and a great patio out front. They’re smart: wander around the store with a beer and you’re more likely to buy some of their cool gear.

We had to try Bryson City Brewery because it’s the closest to home and seemed like a neat spot in a historic RC Cola bottling plant. Even though the vibe wasn’t our scene, we stood at the bar for a while waiting for attention, and finally got frustrated and left. Seemed like a good option to take your kids for burgers maybe.

Bryson City’s walkable downtown, campground scenery and location, proximity to super hiking, and tasty food and drink options mean we’ll be back often! Same goes for our next stop, Brevard, an hour and a half back east, close to Asheville.