At an elevation of 5,506 feet (1,678 meters) above sea level, Beech Mountain is the highest incorporated community east of the Mississippi River.

Snow usually starts in November, tapering off by March, and occasional snowfall occurs in April.

Windy conditions tend to be amplified across the county due to the rugged terrain and high elevation.

Because of the cold winter climate in Watauga County, the area is home to several ski resorts.

The county is served by state highways maintained by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

As such, commercial airline passengers must typically utilize the airports at Charlotte, Greensboro in North Carolina, or the Tri-Cities in Tennessee.

[11] Sunway Charters, a charter bus company, operates in cooperation with Greyhound Lines to provide coach bus service from Boone to Charlotte and Greensboro, called the Mountaineer North–South and the Mountaineer East–West, respectively.

According to the 2000 Census the largest self-reported ancestry groups in Watauga County were: English (25.1%), German (22.5%) and Irish (13.3%).

The towns of Boone, Beech Mountain, Blowing Rock, and Seven Devils have municipal police departments.

[21] Fire protection is provided by 13 fire departments in Watauga County including Beaver Dam, Boone, Beech Mountain, Cove Creek, Deep Gap, Foscoe, Meat Camp, Shawneehaw, Stewart, Simmons, Todd, and Zionville.

The only Democrats to gain an absolute majority of the county's vote in the 20th century were Franklin Roosevelt in 1932 and 1936, and by a very narrow margin, Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, while Woodrow Wilson in 1912 and Bill Clinton in 1992 obtained pluralities in three-cornered contests.

The growth of Appalachian State University, with its predominantly left-leaning electorate, has strengthened the Democratic Party's standing and it carried the county in 2008, 2016, 2020 and 2024.