We go there
Every guide starts with an in-person visit and a date. Sometimes we go back in different weather, because a forest road in a downpour can tell you things a dry day will not.
About
We go to the places we write about. These are firsthand guides to Asheville, Brevard and Pisgah National Forest, with photos and dates so you know when we were there.
What this is
I love Asheville and Western North Carolina, and I want people who come here to enjoy it. I also like sharing what I know and pointing visitors toward places that are actually worth the trip. Getting people outdoors is the reason this site exists.
The problem is that a lot of what is published about these places is old, and some of it was never right to begin with. I have found an official page describing a ford that has been a bridge for four years, and a campground listing saying there is no drinking water at a site where the spigot runs fine. Then the same paragraph gets copied from directory to directory, usually with photographs nobody bothered to date.
So I go see it myself. I photograph what is there and put a date on what I found. If that contradicts an official source, I say so instead of trying to make both versions sound right.
Editorial standards
We use the same basic process for every guide. Since "field-checked" gets used pretty loosely online, this is what we mean by it.
Every guide starts with an in-person visit and a date. Sometimes we go back in different weather, because a forest road in a downpour can tell you things a dry day will not.
If a listing says there is water, we turn on the tap. If it says you have to ford a creek, we walk it. If we cannot verify something, we report it as a claim instead of presenting it as something we confirmed.
We take the pretty pictures, of course, but we also photograph the potholes, the gate, the toilet interior and long stretches of road. Those unglamorous pictures are often the ones people actually need.
GPS coordinates and capture timestamps stay in the files. The date matters because it tells you whether you are looking at a current observation or something from years ago.
If official sources disagree with each other, or with what we found on the ground, the guide tells you that. We do not pick whichever answer makes the page cleaner.
Conditions change, and sometimes we can get something wrong. When that happens, we correct it and date the change instead of quietly making the old version disappear.
There are no affiliate links here, and nobody pays to be recommended. We do not use stock photography to stand in for a place we have not visited. Asheville Insider's Guide is not sponsored by or affiliated with the USDA Forest Service, Recreation.gov, or any campground concessionaire.
Who is behind it
I'm Will Thomas, a photographer and naturalist based in Mills River, North Carolina. I've been photographing professionally since 2001. My work is used by Wikipedia and other major reference platforms, including more than 25 articles in 14 languages. I've also taken part in eastern hellbender population and chytrid fungus surveys in Western North Carolina. When I photograph species in the field, I do it as a naturalist, not a collector.
Julie is the campground and RV half of this. I'm more of a dispersed camping and trails person, so when we cover a developed campground, I lean heavily on her read of the place. She has also been half of the naturalist field work since we were breeding marine fish together.
Our commercial photography is separate from this site and lives under Forge Mountain Photography and White Bison Media. Asheville Insider's Guide is the naturalist side of what we do, and it is not for sale.
Get in touch
Forest roads wash out. Bridges get built. Gates move or close. If you find something here that is out of date or just plain wrong, tell us. We want to fix it. Email is the best way to reach us.