Its elevation reaches 5,236 feet (1,596 m) and is split along the Eastern Continental Divide, generating feeder streams for the Linville, Elk, and North Toe rivers.

On its north slope resides the Village of Sugar Mountain.

Sugar Mountain has two golf courses, Sugar Mountain Country Club[2] and Linville Ridge Country Club[3] (on adjacent Flattop Mountain), which are open late spring to early fall.

[6] Because of many complaints by locals and visitors, the state of North Carolina passed the Mountain Ridge Protection Act of 1983[7] so that nothing similar can be built again.

Many students of nearby Appalachian State University in Boone, NC refer to the building as "The Sugar Cube" because of its unnaturally awkward square shape on the horizon.