Watauga Lake is a wonderful place for a second home and the ideal place for a first home. The lake is a favorite four-season location for empty-nesters and retirees from all over. Watauga Lake is 16 miles long, and has a shoreline of 109 miles. Watauga Lake's idyllic lifestyle includes limitless outdoor activities or a more leisurely lifestyle in a setting of breathtaking scenery. Recreation opportunities abound. The area's four marinas can accommodate all your aquatic needs - fishing boats, ski boats, sailing, pontoons, and ski equipment.

 

For the fishermen, Watauga Lake boasts thirteen species of game fish including rainbow and brown trout, walleye and smallmouth and largemouth bass. Campers and nature enthusiasts will find numerous campgrounds, picnic areas and wildlife preserves in the Cherokee National Forest and Pond Mountain Wilderness Preserve.

 

Hikers can choose from a wide range of trails of varying degrees of difficulty: Appalachian Trail, Backbone Rock, Iron Mountain Trail, or the Virginia Creeper Trail.

 

Surrounded by the Cherokee National Forest and flanked by the Appalachian Mountains, Watauga Lake is the most beautiful and scenic as well as the highest lake (2000 feet above sea level) in the entire TVA system. With 80% of the 16 mile long lake owned by the United States Forest Service, Watauga Lake is the third cleanest lake in America.