North Carolina Arboretum

Tucked into the lush Bent Creek Experimental Forest south of Asheville, the North Carolina Arboretum is a 434-acre living museum that serves as an essential hub for education, landscape design, and environmental stewardship. The Arboretum, located within the Pisgah National Forest, features 12 different dog-friendly trails that offer 10 miles of hiking, biking, and running opportunities in a botanically diverse pocket off the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The arboretum's history is connected to George Washington Vanderbilt II, who purchased the land in the late 19th century with the intention of adding an arboretum to Biltmore, a 250-room home built on the property that is the largest privately owned home in the United States (at nearly 180,000 square feet).

Vanderbilt hired Frederick Law Olmsted, often known as the father of American landscape architecture for his work on Manhattan’s Central Park and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, to design a nine-acre arboretum that was to be located on the land, but it was ultimately not built during either of their lifetimes. (After Vanderbilt’s death, his widow sold about 86,000 acres of the land to the U.S. Forest Service to create the Pisgah National Forest.) The forest on the land is thought to be the first professionally managed forest in the country, and the Biltmore School of Forestry, established at the turn of the 20th century, was the nation’s first such institution.

Biltmore continues to be an attraction for visitors to the region, and in 1986, the North Carolina General Assembly formally established the arboretum as an affiliate of the University of North Carolina System to complete the legacy that Olmsted and Vanderbilt envisioned.

“The arboretum does a great job of incorporating Appalachian culture into the landscapes,” says North Carolina Arboretum's Abby Cantrell. “The Quilt Garden features seasonal plantings that represent traditional quilting patterns; the Heritage Garden is filled with plants traditionally used for things like broom making, dyeing yarn, and other heritage crafts." She notes that the Bonsai Exhibition Garden reflects the climate of Western North Carolina, which puts a unique twist on the art of Bonsai. 

The arboretum boasts 10 miles of trails, which can provide an all-day activity or just a brief, accessible trail walk. 

 In 2025, the Arboretum launched the "North Carolina Tree of the Year" initiative, selecting the White Oak (Quercus alba) as its inaugural honoree. More than 10,000 trees on the Arboretum lands were lost during Hurricane Helene in 2024, and the white oak will feature heavily on future reforesting efforts in the area.