Video Below – Kayaking on Lake Glenville in NC
It’s May in the Great Smoky Mountains of Western North Carolina and that means you never know what kind of weather you will experience in the next 15 minutes. Though the air temp was a little chilly, Debra and I chose to strap the kayaks onto the Jeep and point our front bumper toward Glenville, NC. Located between the town of Sylva and the village of Cashiers, NC, Glenville is a small community along NC Highway 107. It is approximately 15 miles from Western Carolina University and 8 miles from Cashiers.
At one time Glenville was an incorporated town. Not only was it a town, but when it became incorporated in 1891, it was the largest town in Jackson County. The town of Glenville was destroyed in 1941 by flooding when the local power company built a hydroelectric dam that formed Lake Glenville. The dam was built along the Tuckasegee River at Onion Falls.
At an elevation of 3,494 feet, Lake Glenville is the highest lake east of the Mississippi River https://www.ncliving.com/lake-glenville/. This beautiful mountain lake has 26 miles of shoreline and covers 1,400 acres. There are seven islands, three waterfalls, Hurricane Falls, Mills Creek Falls, and Norton Falls. The falls are all only accessible by boat.
You can boat and ski on the lake and there is a wide assortment of fish to reel in – small and large mouth bass, brown and rainbow trout, crappie, walleye, yellow perch, large brim, and catfish. The kids can have a blast at the sandy beach of Pines Recreation Area on Pine Creek Road. There is also a county-run campground off Pine Creek Road called Ralph J Andrews Recreation Park.