WHERE IS HICKORY NUT GORGE?
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More About Hickory Nut Gorge, North Carolina
​Located in Western North Carolina, Hickory Nut Gorge, as the first settlers called it, is a steep, low elevation gorge on the edge of the Blue Ridge Escarpment. This marks the separation of the Piedmont and the Blue Ridge Physiographic Province, better known as the Blue Ridge Mountains.
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Hickory Nut Gorge was formed primarily by the Broad River and its swift-moving streams which wore away the rock. Hickory Nut Gorge begins at Hickory Nut Gap north of Gerton and drops approximately 1800 feet in elevation before it ends in Lake Lure, ten miles away.
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GERTON
BAT CAVE & BROAD RIVER
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LAKE LURE
CHIMNEY ROCK
Hickory Nut Gorge is home to numerous species, some unique to the area. It is the habitat for a vast array of plants like mountain laurel, pines, oaks, blueberries and hickories. Various trees like hemlock, tulip popular, oaks and maple trees cover north-facing slopes.
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Some parts of Hickory Nut Gorge are designated high priority sites due to the number of individual plant communities, species diversity, or number of rare species. Sites such as Chimney Rock Park, now part of the larger Chimney Rock State Park, are important not only because of their historical significance as major tourist destinations but also because of what lives there.
Other significant natural areas in Hickory Nut Gorge are the Bat Cave Preserve, Rumbling Bald Mountain, Cane Creek Mountain, World’s Edge/Sugarloaf Mountain.
