Secluded Cabin Overlooking Fontana Lake & Smoky Mtns NP

This 3500 square-foot, secluded cabin is ideal for your family getaway or a retreat with that someone special or as a home base for riding or driving the famous roads of Western North Carolina.

Fontana Cabin is located in Graham County, North Carolina, at the very end of a winding gravel road that takes you through a tunnel of trees before revealing a distinctive house perched on top of a bluff above Fontana Lake. The approach into the Cabin is through the main deck, where you will have a hard time resisting the pull of the breathtaking view of crystal-clear Lake Fontana and the layered Smoky Mountains behind it.

On all sides of the Cabin, you are surrounded by either our 4-acre property or Public Lands, so all you see looking outside of the Cabin is Southern Appalachian deciduous forest. The view from the deck, where you will want to take your coffee as well as all your meals and your naps, changes hourly, daily, and seasonally, calling you to leave your cares behind as you tune into the rhythm of Nature.

Inside, you will find 5 separate bedrooms and 4 bathrooms that will provide your group the space, comfort, and flexibility it needs to make the place your temporary home. The house was built in 1968 and has been updated over the years to balance the best of its vintage and contemporary features, including most recently with a full-scale update of the Cabin decor, linens, kitchenware, and other amenities in September, 2021, a few months after we bought the place in July 2021, and ongoing smaller updates since then, including putting on a new roof in July 2024.

The kitchen is fully equipped with a farmhouse table that seats six, with a second table for 6 outside on the covered porch if you want to eat outside or if you have a bigger group. Like the table, almost all of the wood furnishings in the house are unique--handmade from re-purposed and re-finished salvaged wood from old buildings in the region.

Given our remote location, we have Starlink satellite Internet instead of wired broadband, but we have enough WiFi capability throughout the house for ordinary computing and streaming--and even zooms if you need to stay connected to work while you are here. Our cell phone booster in the house makes cell service strong even though it is weak on the road up to the Cabin.

Our LAKE VIEW is awesome, but there is NO DIRECT ACCESS TO THE LAKE from our property. Fontana Lake is a 29 mile-long crystal clear lake that has more than 240 miles of almost totally undeveloped shoreline. More than 90 percent of the land around the lake is owned by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Nantahala National Forest, or the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), so development has been kept to a minimum (including at our place, where the Forest Service and TVA own the bottom half of the 200-foot steep mountainside between the Cabin and the lake).

The good news is that the lake is surrounded by forest and provides an inspiring backdrop to every part of your stay at the Cabin, but the less good news is that you have to leave the property to get to the lake itself. If you do want to access the lake to fish, boat, kayak, or canoe, there are a number of boat launches and marinas on the south side of the lake where we are located, including the public boat launch at the Cable Cove National Forest Recreation Area 20 minutes from the Cabin, and the full-service marina at the Fontana Village Marina, right at the Fontana Dam, 25 minutes from Cabin.

Please also know that if you are hauling a trailer or driving an RV, we have plenty of parking at the Cabin, but the road and driveway into the place are winding and steep in spots. It's fine for cars, but not suitable for long trailers or long vehicles over 16 feet, so it's best to check with us before booking.

Whether you are seeking hiking, biking, boating, fishing, scenic driving, nature photography, motorcycling, whitewater rafting, or vacationing, you will find a full array of natural destinations, quaint shops and the rich history of North Carolina's most remote county within minutes of the Cabin.

Smoky Mountain National Park - 45 minutes to Park Entrance from Cabin
You can see the Southern edge of the park just across the Lake from the Cabin, and can access it via the water if you are boating, but the driving entrance is just North of Bryson City and Cherokee.

The Dragon - 35 minutes from Cabin to Deal's Gap
Starting at Deal's Gap at the Tennessee/North Carolina state line and featuring 318 curves in just 11 miles, the Dragon is considered by many to be one of the world's best motorcycling and sports car roads. Anyone looking for an exciting highway adventure--whether you are a rider or a driver--will enjoy this famous stretch of US 129. Even better, the road to there from our place is another great drive, called Moonshiner 28. Combine it with Foothills Parkway in TN and the Smoky NP Park road, and people call that loop Hillbilly Heaven.

Blue Ridge Parkway - 45 minutes to the Southern Terminus from Cabin
Experience this world famous Parkway, including the Parkway's highest point, which is 1.5 hours away from the Cabin, just south of Waynesville.

Cherohala Skyway - 1 hour to Eastern Terminus from Cabin
This is a shorter but less traveled mountaintop scenic highway with views and curves that rival the North Carolina portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Whitewater Adventures - 30 minutes from Cabin
The western North Carolina mountains offer some of the best whitewater rafting/paddling rivers on the East Coast. Nantahala River's Class I, II, and III rapids and renowned providers such as the Nantahala Outdoor Center provide the perfect place for the entire family to have a taste of this exciting sport. If you are hardcore, the Cheoah River has Class IV and V rapids during scheduled release dates.

Appalachian Trail - access 25 minutes from the Cabin
The renowned Trail that bisects the entire East Coast goes through our area, actually crossing over Fontana Dam itself before heading into the Smoky Mountains National Park to the north and into Nantahala National Forest to the south.