321 Access Upper Gorge Park, Watauga River

Managed by MountainTrue Watauga Riverkeeper

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Watauga County owned and maintained public access park. Put in for Section 3 Watauga Gorge.

Parking for nearby popular swimming holes Laurel Creek Falls, Snake Pit.

Delayed harvest trout fishing upstream to Hubert Thomas.

Covered picnic shelter.

Get directions to this beach

COVID-19

Keep your distance from other people.

Practicing social distancing is still essential. Only go to the beach if you are able to keep 6 feet or 2 meters away from others. Follow the instructions provided by your local health authorities. If your community has asked that you remain indoors and away from others, do so. Spending a day in any crowded place is the worst thing we can do for our most vulnerable right now and will counter our efforts to curb the virus’s spread.

Water Quality

Meets water quality standards
Current Status
This status is based on the latest sample, taken on June 22nd, 2022. MountainTrue Watauga Riverkeeper updates the status of this beach as soon as test results become available. These results were posted to Swim Guide on June 24th, 2022 at 9:16 AM.

For water quality icon legend, click:

Report Pollution

Monitoring Frequency

Source Information

The Watauga Riverkeeper is a program of MountainTrue and a member of the Waterkeeper Alliance. Every week from May to September, Watauga Riverkeeper staff, interns, and volunteers monitor water quality at sites across the Watauga, New, and Elk river watersheds. Weekly results are posted on Fridays so you know where it's safe to swim, fish, and paddle on your weekend adventures. Results will be communicated through the Swim Guide mobile app and website, as well as the Watauga Riverkeeper Facebook and Instagram pages.

The Watauga Riverkeeper utilizes the EPA-approved IDEXX method for collecting and analyzing water samples and compares the results against the EPA standard for health of 235 E.coli cfu/100 ml. Test results are expressed as Most Probable Number (MPN) of E. coli cfu (colony forming units) per 100 ml.

A beach is marked Green when single sample results are under 235 E.coli / 100 ML water.
A beach is marked Red when the results are equal to or above 235 E.coli / 100 ML water.
A beach is marked Grey when there are no current results or there is no available
information.

Water Quality Graph