Abstract:
The Gorges is the state's newest park and the first created west of Asheville. The 6,800-acre park in Transylvania County, established in April 1999, boasts spectacular gorges, breathtaking waterfalls, and deep forests. Over 1,000 plant species, 80 of them rare, flourish in this environment. Ecologists consider the protection of this area as significant as the creation of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in 1926.