Boone is a mountain town in northwestern North Carolina, sitting at around 3,300 feet in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It is a popular destination year-round: skiers come in winter for the slopes at nearby Appalachian Ski Mountain, summer visitors arrive for relief from lowland heat and access to the Blue Ridge Parkway, and autumn draws leaf-peepers for some of the best fall color in the eastern United States.
Home to Appalachian State University, Boone has an energy that exceeds its size. The downtown on King Street is full of restaurants, independent shops, and breweries. The town is a good base for hiking in the surrounding mountains — Grandfather Mountain, just a short drive away, is one of the most distinctive peaks in the Appalachians.
The Blue Ridge Parkway runs close to town, and the section near Boone offers dramatic overlooks, easy walks, and access to the Linn Cove Viaduct, an engineering landmark that hugs the rocky flank of Grandfather Mountain. For history, the Hickory Ridge Homestead and the long-running Horn in the West outdoor drama recreate the frontier era; for nostalgia, Tweetsie Railroad runs an authentic narrow-gauge steam train on a three-mile loop just south of town.