Dan’l Boone Inn is one of the oldest Boone NC restaurants serving NC family style dining and has been voted one of best restaurants in North Carolina.

For over 65 years, Dan’l Boone Inn has been serving Boone and the high country delicious home cooked meals, just like you remember at grandma’s house.

Situated in the heart of downtown Boone is a charming historical building surrounded by lush flower beds and a white picket fence. It was first built as a doctor’s residence in 1923, then served as the first hospital in Boone. It was later converted into a rooming house for students at Appalachian State Teachers College. In 1959, it was lovingly transformed into a family-style restaurant, the Dan’l Boone Inn.

Famous for home-cooked, family-style meals, the Dan’l Boone Inn has been serving up delectable southern food to the High Country for more than 64 years.

“It’s like being at your grandmother’s house back in the day. It’s the whole family gathered around a table, passing food to one another and enjoying a hearty meal together,” says general manager Jeff Shellman.

Shellman has been managing the restaurant for 25 years. While there have been some changes in that time, the family-style meals customers have come to know and love have remained unchanged.

“We’ve tried changing it up a few times and substituting different items, but we’ve found that people have come to love our original menu. They value the quality and familiarity of the dishes we’re well-known for,” Shellman says.

So, what does a family-style meal look like? It begins with salad in the summer or soup in the winter. The main course includes three meats that Dan’l Boone Inn is famous for—fried chicken, country-style steak and country ham—five vegetables, a beverage and biscuits with preserves. A homemade dessert completes the meal.

“Whether you have two people or a party of 10, we make sure you enjoy a family-style meal with the atmosphere our customers have come to love,” Shellman says.

On Saturdays and Sundays, customers can also come enjoy a family-style breakfast, featuring scrambled eggs, country ham, sausage, pancakes, grits, biscuits and gravy, and glazed cinnamon biscuits.

Dan’l Boone Inn is centrally located in downtown Boone, so guests are within a stone’s throw of plenty of attractions, like the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts and, during the summer, the Appalachian Summer Festival.

“Boone is a wonderful community, and it’s very rewarding to be a part of this restaurant that has become a well-loved fixture of the High Country,” Shellman says.

Located in downtown Boone, the Dan’l Boone Inn occupies one of the oldest and most historical buildings in town. The building first served as the residence and office for Dr. R.K. Bingham and family. It also served as Boone’s first hospital. Once the new hospital was built down the street, the home became a rooming house for students at Appalachian State Teachers College. In 1959, the Whitaker family opened the Dan’l Boone Inn as a family style restaurant. For over fifty years, the restaurant has served family style meals, making it the oldest restaurant in Boone.

Dan’l Boone Inn has been featured in numerous national and regional publications including Southern Living, Our State magazine and Blue Ridge Country magazine. Come and see for yourself why generations of residents and visitors alike chose Dan’l Boone Inn.

A Sampling of DAN’L BOONE INNS’ Menu

Breakfast

We serve breakfast Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (June through October) and Saturday and Sunday throughout the year.

Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Country Ham, Sausage, Grits, Pancakes, Stewed Apples, Buttermilk Biscuits, Cinnamon Biscuits, Redeye Gravy,  Cream Gravy
Black Cherry Preserves, Orange Juice, Beverage

Lunch/Dinner

Lunch is served daily Memorial Day through December and on Saturday and Sunday throughout the year. Dinner is served daily.

Fried Chicken, Country Style Steak, Country Ham Biscuits, Mashed Potatoes & Gravy, Green Beans, Stewed Apples,Cut Corn, Cole Slaw, Buttermilk Biscuits, Black Cherry Preserves,Soup or Salad (according to season), Choice of Homemade Dessert, Beverage

A Gem in Blowing Rock

Hawksnest Celebrates Over 60 Years!

FEEL THE THRILL OF A LIFETIME ON ONE OF THE EAST COAST’S LONGEST AND MOST SCENIC ZIPLINE TOURS!

Tripadvisor Traveler’s Choice Award Winner! 

Hawksnest has ranked among the top 10% of listings on Tripadvisor (worldwide).

Located just outside of beautiful Boone, NC, Hawksnest offers 2 full tour options, featuring 20 ziplines in total, with over 4 miles of ziplining fun! Both zipline tours feature 2 mega zips – ziplines over 1500 feet long! Enjoy heights up to 200 feet and speeds over 40 mph. Zipline over the tree tops, through the canopy, and over lakes and creeks, while taking in the spectacular panoramic views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.There’s no better way to adventure in the NC Mountains than here with us at Hawksnest!

Hawksnest Tubing park is the largest snow tubing park on the East Coast!

With over 30 lanes of snow tubing that span from 400-1000 feet long, Hawksnest Tubing is your family’s destination for a unique winter experience. Our four different snow tubing areas provide an array of terrain that satisfies even the most advanced of tubers!

Hawksnest’s snowmaking facilities are able to provide the best possible conditions and fun for the whole family.  We offer 100% lighting and snow tubing on all lanes, so the fun can continue into the night. Our snow grooming equipment is state of the art, so we can offer a wide stretch of groomed lanes for tubing fun.

• Featuring 4 different areas to snow tube with over 30 lanes of fun!
• Lanes are 400 – 1,000 feet long with 3 moving carpet lifts to bring you back to the top.
• 100% snowmaking and lighting on all lanes.

White Water Rafting Tour!

Offering Fully Guided White Water Rafting Adventures On The Watauga and Nolichucky River

Raft the thrills of the Nolichucky River: This scenic and wild rafting trip provides the highest level of adventure for families in the Southeast. Our Nolichucky trip features more than two dozen rapids as it carves through the steepest, deepest, and most remote river corridor in the surrounding area. Known for its challenging rapids, remote and rugged setting, and constantly shifting water levels, our Nolichucky trip is sure to impress! The outpost and meet-up are located in Erwin, TN.

Open Year Round!

Grandfather Mountain Offers Scenic Views and The Wilson Center for Nature Discovery

You’ll never experience the same mountain twice: today you might come face-to-face with an owl, another day you may see rare wildflowers in bloom. Just talk to one of our naturalists to understand more about these living treasures and learn where to find them. There’s nowhere else on Earth that you can enjoy such a variety of mountain life in one amazing place.

Situated 15 miles south of Boone and towering nearly 6,000 feet above sea level, Grandfather Mountain is a wonder of natural beauty, diverse wildlife and unbeatable views.

The mountain is most well-known for the Mile High Swinging Bridge: a 228-foot suspension footbridge crossing a chasm 80 feet off the ground. Visitors can enjoy panoramic views of the High Country—all the way to Charlotte on a clear day.

Grandfather Mountain is home to an amazing variety of wildlife, including those featured in its wildlife habitats, such as black bears, eagles, elk and river otters. These animals, all of which were either injured, orphaned in the wild or born into captivity, are almost all native species to Grandfather Mountain. They are housed in habitats built around their true native environments.

Each day, April though October, visitors to the mountain can join the naturalists and habitat keepers for interactive programs with the animals. These include a short presentation about the animal, some Q&A and an enrichment—an activity done with the animal to stimulate them, such as offering them a favorite treat or a unique scent.

“During an enrichment, you might see the river otters chasing fish around their pond, the bears frolicking with a perfume-scented box, or the cougars playing with rolls of toilet paper like giant housecats,” says Christie Tipton, Grandfather Mountain Animal Habitats Curator.

For visitors looking to get some exercise, Grandfather Mountain has access to more than 12 miles of hiking trails to suit a wide range of hikers—from those looking to take a leisurely stroll through the woods, to those seeking a more rigorous hike up the mountain featuring cables and ladders.

Families seeking kid-friendly adventure can pick up a Junior Naturalist guidebook, then embark on an educational journey to earn their Junior Naturalist badge and certificate.

Visitors to Grandfather Mountain can bring their own lunch to enjoy at one of the 100 picnic sites located at scenic spots around the park, or they can stop in for a hearty lunch at Mildred’s Grill.

Now Open! The Wilson Center for Nature Discovery

The Wilson Center for Nature Discovery, that opened early summer 2022, nearly doubles the size of the original Nature Museum with more than a dozen new state-of-the-art interactive exhibits exploring the natural history, flora, fauna, geology and weather of the mountain. Outside is a botanical garden, and an amphitheater and pavilion open this year. New programming and experiences also coincide with the new Wilson Center.

Opened in spring 2006, Yonni’s Clubhouse is a new facility for young explorers with interactive exhibits focused on pollinators, climate, weather and ecosystems. Educational concepts highlighted in indoor exhibits come to life outdoors through sensory and pollinator gardens, a nature trail, activities and interpretive signage. The building’s name comes from the cartoon mascot for Grandfather Mountain’s Junior Naturalist Program: Yonni, the Yonahlossee salamander (a species first collected at a site on Grandfather Mountain in 1917).

The nature park will hold synchronous firefly viewing events this year and will host many noted conservationists June-September for the Grandfather Presents speaker series.

Grandfather Mountain is owned and operated by the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to inspiring conservation of the natural world. Admission and purchases made in the park all go toward preserving the mountain for future generations and supporting the foundation’s mission.

Advance reservations are strongly encouraged. To learn more and book your trip, visit Grandfather.com.

The original Farm to Table restaurant in High Country,

The Gamekeeper will enlighten your taste buds on a dramatic journey of gourmet and modern cuisine exploration.

Located in a charming stone cottage amidst lovely views of ferns and native Poplar and Maple trees,
The Gamekeeper Bar & Restaurant has been delighting guests with their game-focused, mountain-modern cuisine for more than 30 years.

Originally built as part of the historic Camp Yonahlossee, the cottage underwent significant renovations in the 1950s when it became the summer residence of the Kepharts, the camp founders and directors. In 1987, the Gamekeeper Bar & Restaurant was founded and in 2000, was purchased by chefs Ken Gordon and Wendy Sykes-Gordon.

Ken continues to celebrate the rustic appeal of the historic cottage and has made significant commitments to preserve the historic infrastructure. New patio spaces are nestled into the natural rock formations and abundant foliage that make up the front of the Gk property and plans to provide more covered outdoor dining are forthcoming. The restaurant is situated on scenic Shull’s Mill
Road between Blowing Rock and Boone. It’s tucked away location on a winding back road adds to the feeling that dinner guests have discovered a hidden treasure. Western mountain views peeking out from the leafy summer canopy make the Gamekeeper a popular sunset destination.

For the past nine years Chef de Cuisine Tyler Smith has been working with Ken to bring consistency to their standard fare and to recreate many classic comfort food dishes with a fresh spin. The chef’s love of cooking and the talents of their kitchen crew is evident in every aspect of preparation and presentation. Utilizing a wood-fired grill, nose to-tail preparation, and time-honored traditional methods of preserving, curing, and smoking has helped earn the Gamekeeper the AAA Four-Diamond award each year since 2007.

In 2018 OpenTable diners voted The Gamekeeper one of America’s most romantic restaurants. The awards and accolades are very special, but as Maitre D’, Michael Vinson points out, “appreciative guests — and empty plates — are the standard the Gk crew is working for each night.”

The menu changes seasonally to reflect the freshest local ingredients, satisfying both meat and veggie lovers. Farmers and foragers regularly knock on the kitchen door with freshly-picked produce and the evening’s menu reflects those offerings. The staff at the Gamekeeper believes that fine dining can be fun and welcomes guests to a comfortable, satisfying dining experience.