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 North
Carolina's High Country is a land of extremes. From the highest
peak and the deepest gorge east of the Mississippi, to the second oldest river in the world, the High Country is not
a land of mediocre proportions.
While
Grandfather Mountain (5,694 ft.) and Beech Mountain (5,505)
are close runners-up, Mt. Mitchell at an impressive 6,684
feet is the highest mountain in the east. Located just off
Milepost 355 on the Blue Ridge Parkway, south of Spruce Pine,
Mt. Mitchell is part of the billion-years-old Black Mountains.
Just
an hour North of the highest mountain is the deepest gorge
in the East, Linville Gorge. The gorge is formed by Jonas
Ridge to the east and Linville Mountain on the west and is
bisected by Linville River which begins on Grandfather Mountain
and extends for some 12 miles through the gorge.
Just
North of Linville Gorge are the headwaters to a river with
it's own claim to fame. The epitome of an oxymoron, the "New
River," is actually the second-oldest river in the World--second
only to the Nile. In 1998, President Clinton designated the
New River as an American Heritage River on a ceremony on its
banks in the High Country.
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