Come snorkeling in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Seriously. It’s fun.
Against my better judgment, I dropped to all fours in the Swannanoa River and plunged my head underwater, bursting into a dark, green world where the only sound was the bubbling of my own snorkel.
I grabbed a slippery rock and Army-crawled my way upriver, passing through 2 feet of rushing water like the world’s clumsiest salmon, staring through my mask for signs of underwater life.
I had driven four hours to Black Mountain for the official kickoff of the Blue Ridge Snorkel Trail, the state’s official invitation to the underside of its mountain waterways, where saffron shiners and river chubs dart in abundance.
And there, in the cold Buncombe County water, a pair of fish swam up to my mask like ambassadors to a murky kingdom, shining, speckled and no bigger than my finger.
They hovered there for a moment, pausing to show me around, gesturing with their tiny fins at the smooth, round rocks they call home. I winked at them through my mask, offering a silent thanks, then returned to the ordinary world above.
This is snorkeling in the North Carolina mountains, a form of recreation that only vaguely resembles the version practiced in Florida and the Caribbean — its more common terrain.
The Blue Ridge Mountains have no coral reefs, no white sand, no charter boats, no sun-baked tourists and no sharks, but they do present a rich biodiversity and a sense of regional pride that delivers the same rewards for anyone willing to visit face-first.
“If you can stick your head underwater,” said Luke Etchison, a conservation fisheries biologist for the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, “it’s worth snorkeling.”
The creation of the Blue Ridge Snorkel Trail
The commission created the trail with help from several conservation nonprofits and funding from the Tennessee Valley Authority and the NC chapter of the American Fisheries Society.
The trail consists of 10 sites where the water is clearest, starting at the Roaring River in Stone Mountain State Park, stretching to the Tuckasegee River in Bryson City.
The idea for now is to offer snorkeling in a string of spots no more than 30 minutes apart, inviting shallow-water exploration from the Pigeon River in Canton to the Catawba in Marion, where I also ducked my head on Thursday.
All of them come marked with a helpful sign pointing out what fish might be found. The project is brand new, but eventually, these sites should be renting snorkels to visitors. At any rate, I bought mine for about 25 bucks, and a pair of swim goggles works fine in a pinch.
Yes, the water tends to be dark and cloudy, especially after a rain.
Yes, the Swannanoa gets a tad colder than the snorkeling spots off the Florida Keys.
But a hardy snorkeler will bear up to these rugged conditions, borne up by the chance of glimpsing a tangerine darter with its bright orange belly. Though shy and scarce, hellbender salamanders inhabit these waters, as do brook trout — North Carolina’s proud natives.
“Our streams get clear quick,” Etchison said, “and we have a lot of cool fish.”
The creatures, fish you can see
With more people inspecting these rivers up close, the state hopes to instill a greater sense of conservation, inspired by the creatures swimming inside them. Groups like Mountain True and Conserving Carolina back the state’s snorkeling push, and they gladly accept aid in return.
As I followed Etchison into the Swannanoa, he and aquatic ecologist Andrea Leslie netted several dozen fish and put them on shore-side display for the two dozen snorkelers who came for the kickoff.
Out came Swannanoa darters, a brook trout and a crayfish that has yet to be accurately described, all of them culled from the water churning through Veterans Park, which offered swings, cornhole and a free blues guitar concert Thursday for the less adventurous.
“Not as fun as staring at rocks,” Etchison joked.
And as I jumped back in for another underwater peek, my mask gone foggy from the heat, Etchison offered me this snorkeler’s tip:
Spit on the lens and wipe it around with your shirt. It’s a little gross, and definitely not Caribbean style, but it works.
The fish, in their river-bottom world, approve.
How to go snorkeling in the Blue Ridge Mountains
Get more information on locations and kickoff dates, visit the Blue Ridge Snorkel Trail website at ncfishes.com/blue-ridge-snorkel-trail/
This story was originally published July 10, 2023 at 6:00 AM.