Along with Durango, Colorado, Bend, Oregon and North Vancouver, British Columbia, Boone, North Carolina was selected as one of four multi-sport vacation destinations in North America, featured in an article in the May 2005 issue of Adventure Sports Magazine.

Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, the magazine editors and author Scott Schumaker generously share Boone with their readers, displaying local photographer Todd Bush’s lush, colorful photos of activities such as bouldering, mountain biking, hiking, and kayaking. A spectacular view of the Linville Gorge rounds out the selection of Bush photos.

Schumaker praises Boone as a “hallowed gem of outdoor adventure” and says there are dozens of opportunities for adventures and “seemingly endless” trails for hiking, running and biking. Backpacking and camping in the area are not to be missed, he says.

Into mountain biking? The 200 miles of trails in the Pisgah National Forest just south of Boone are a mountain biking “wonderland,” according to Schumaker, who recommends Yancey’s Ridge, a 14-mile loop near Linville. Within the town limits of Boone, trails endorsed by the author include the trails, such as the Greenway Trail, on the wooded preserve owned by Appalachian State University, as well as the section of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail which runs right through town on its 900-plus-mile jaunt across the state of North Carolina.

With “hundreds of miles” of byways and trails “and some of the highest peaks in the East…Boone has a little something for everyone,” the national magazine reports.

We wholeheartedly agree!