Seven Devils, NC

Seven Devils is a small Avery–Watauga County town high in North Carolina’s High Country, organized around a ridge near Hanging Rock and Dunveagan Peak. Seven men from the Winston-Salem area started the unincorporated community in the mid-1960s as a recreation project; the town incorporated in 1979 and now maintains its own public works, water, fire, police, parks, and zoning departments. The town’s road rules divide local travel among town roads, state-maintained roads, and private roads, a practical detail in a mountain community built along a ridge.

At the top of the recreation list is Hawksnest, with snow tubing in winter and ziplining during warmer months; its access road is part of NCDOT’s winter-maintenance route. Bear Paw State Natural Area reaches into town, and the Park at Seven Devils sits beside Town Hall on Seven Devils Road. Those places give residents and seasonal visitors several ways to use the same high-country landscape. Seven Devils is the kind of place you understand by elevation and access first, then by the resort, natural area, and town park spread along the ridge.