The half-million+ acres of Pisgah National Forest drape like a cloak around the Asheville area and provide easy access to some of the most dramatic scenery and outstanding recreational opportunities in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Pisgah National Forest is named after Mt. Pisgah, a 5000 foot high peak located at Blue Ridge Parkway milepost 407, near the Cold Mountain of book and movie fame. Pisgah National Forest became the first National Forest in the eastern United States in 1916. The Pisgah National Forest offers excellent recreational opportunities year-round. Containing over a thousand miles of trails and wilderness areas, it is a hiker’s dream in any season. In warmer weather, its rivers and streams provide excellent fishing, boating, and whitewater sports, while high mountain peaks and deep gorges call to rock climbers and mountain bikers. Camping facilities range from full service RV sites to primitive camps. In the fall, Mother Nature’s colorful show brings leaf-peepers by the thousands, and in winter, the snow-covered slopes in the far northeastern corner of the Pisgah National Forest beckon skiers. Three fish hatcheries in the National Forest raise more than a half million brook, brown, and rainbow trout annually which are used to stock public mountain trout waters in the North Carolina mountains.