Roan Mountain State Park

This high country was long part of the homeland of the Cherokee, who hunted and traveled the ridges of the southern Appalachians for generations. In the late 1830s the Cherokee were forced from their eastern lands and marched west on the Trail of Tears, a removal that emptied much of the surrounding country of its Native people. The Eastern Band of Cherokee remain nearby in western North Carolina, and descendant nations continue in Oklahoma.

The Roan drew a different kind of visitor in the late nineteenth century. Its cool summit and clear air made it a fashionable escape from the summer heat of the lowlands, and a grand resort hotel called the Cloudland was built along the crest, said to straddle the state line so closely that guests could step from Tennessee into North Carolina inside its dining room. The hotel is long gone, but the idea of the Roan as a mountaintop refuge from the heat lives on in the park below.

Tennessee established the state park in the valley to give the public a permanent foothold at the base of the mountain, while the high balds and rhododendron gardens above are managed as part of the surrounding Cherokee National Forest and the Appalachian Trail corridor that runs along the crest. Together they protect one of the great scenic set pieces of the eastern mountains.

The signature sight is the Catawba rhododendron in bloom, a shrub that grows thick across the open high ground and erupts in early summer into masses of large purple and rose flowers. On the Roan the display covers a wide area of the balds, and in a good year it draws visitors from across the Southeast to walk among the flowering thickets with the mountains rolling away below.

The balds themselves are a puzzle. These are broad, treeless meadows sitting well below the elevation where cold alone would keep trees from growing, so something else has kept them open. Grazing, fire, weather, and the browsing of animals have all been proposed, and today land managers actually work to hold the forest back so the balds do not close in. Standing on one, with the wind moving through the grass and views stretching into two states, it is easy to see why people fight to keep them open.

The valley and slopes are classic southern Appalachian woodland, a rich mix of oak, maple, birch, and beech lower down, giving way to dark stands of red spruce and Fraser fir near the summit, a northern kind of forest left stranded on the high peaks since the last ice age. Wildflowers carpet the ground in spring, and the creeks run cold and clear.

White-tailed deer, wild turkey, and black bear range through the park, and the higher forest shelters songbirds more typical of Canada than of the South. Along the streams you may find salamanders, for the southern Appalachians are one of the richest places on earth for them. Birders come for the mix of high-country species that nest here and nowhere else nearby in Tennessee.

Spring comes late to the high ground, and as it arrives the woods fill with wildflowers and the streams run high with snowmelt and rain. It is a fine time for quiet hiking before the summer crowds.

Summer is the marquee season, cool and green in the valley and crowned by the rhododendron bloom on the balds in June. The mountaintop stays comfortable even when the lowlands swelter, which is exactly why people have come here for well over a century.

Fall brings some of the best color in the region, the hardwoods turning gold and red while the spruce and fir stay dark green, and cooler, clearer air that sharpens the long views.

Winter is quiet and can be severe on the summit, with snow, ice, and hard wind, while the valley base stays milder. Higher roads and trails may be closed or hazardous, so it pays to check conditions before heading up.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.