The Tanawha Trail stretches 13.5 miles (21.7 km) from Julian Price Park to Beacon Heights in North Carolina.

[1][2][3][4] Completed in 1993, the Tanawha Trail, much like the nearby final section of Blue Ridge Parkway, crosses a range of geological and biological terrains.

Shortly past the overlook, the MST joins with the Tanawha Trail, after it ascended Beacon Heights from the Pisgah National Forest.

From there, the combined trails follow wooded lands alongside the Blue Ridge Parkway to the Linn Cove Visitor Center.

From the visitor center, the Tanawha Trail passes underneath the Linn Cove Viaduct and ascends steeply up stone steps past an enormous boulder wall.

The trail winds in and out of rhododendron and laurel thickets, joins with an old logging road, and passes through a hardwood forest.

Here, it parallels and crosses Holloway Mountain Road, passes apple orchards, an old grave site, and pasture land, which in spring, is blanketed with numerous wildflowers.

Although docile and avoidant of humans, there have been incidents where injuries have resulted from conflicts with livestock, and signs along the trail entrance near this area warn of the cattle and what to do around them.