The Best Place for Things To Do in Maggie Valley and Western North Carolina
Maggie Valley is located in Haywood County in the Southwest Mountain Region of North Carolina. And, there are a plethora of things to do in Maggie Valley! It is on the eastern side of Great Smoky Mountain National Park (the nation’s most visited national park) as well as being at the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is the nation’s favorite linear drive in the US Park system. The Qualla Boundary (part of the Cherokee Indian Land Trust) also borders the Town of Maggie Valley. Historic small towns and rolling farmland have survived in this area after having long disappeared in most areas of the U.S.
Maggie Valley is well positioned in the Western North Carolina with major highway access corridors and proximity to the Asheville Regional Airport. It is within a day’s drive of most of the Southeast. Maggie Valley has a climate similar to northern New England due to its altitude, Maggie Valley enjoys four equally balanced seasons. The valley floor sits at 3200 feet while the mountain peaks surrounding the valley rise above 5000 feet. This gives Maggie Valley the ability to be an attraction year around for summer and spring outdoor recreation, fall foliage viewing, and winter skiing.
Cataloochee Ski Area is still one of the active attractions in Maggie Valley. Pegged at over $40 million economic impact on Maggie Valley, Cataloochee is one of 6 ski areas in NC that generate over 600,000 visitors a year. Cataloochee has the longest average season of 127 days, running from November to March. Cataloochee also operates a popular tube slide attraction in the town of Maggie Valley.
Maggie Valley has as major transportation museum, Wheels Through Time, that is located behind the Meadowlark Motel. The 50,000 square foot facility features one of the largest collections of motorcycles in the US as well as a unique collection of automobiles and unique vehicles. The facility is truly unique because all the vehicles in the collection still run. The Museum attracts over 40,000 visitors per year.
In the 2000s, the Casino in the Cherokee Indian Reservation, located only 17 miles from the Meadowlark Motel, expanded operation from a simple bingo operation to a large, complex, multi-product firm and tourist destination attracting 3.6 million visitors a year.
The behemoth of tourism in Western NC is Asheville, NC. Rated the #1 place to visit in 2017 by Lonely Planet, nearly 10 million visitors to Asheville spend almost $2 billion a year. The area’s hotel occupancy rate is over 72%. Known as a hipster haven in Western NC, and open to all sorts of lifestyles, Asheville serves a gateway for the rest of the USA to visit the Great Smokey Mountains. The Meadowlark Motel, situated only 33.7 miles from Asheville can serve as a great day trip satellite location for visiting area attractions.
Things To Do At the Meadowlark Motel
Events in Maggie Valley, NC and the Meadowlark Motel
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