Elevate your travel in the Smoky Mountains, where nature lovers meet sustainability.
Coming 2025
Nature Focused
Conservation-minded!! Counterintuitive to mainstream tourism, this project's mission is to promote the mountains, trees, shrubs, ferns, wildflowers, streams, mosses, birds, wildlife and so much more. We appreciate and want to preserve all of the little details created for us that make the Smokies so amazing and one of the most biodiverse places on our planet.
Cozy & Inviting
Inspired by the cabins of yesteryear all around us with all the luxuries of the 21st Century the vibe we're aiming for will be super inviting!! Running Rock will take us back to a simpler time. speckled with individually-designed and eclectic cottages and welcoming a mountaintop village.
Sustainable
Guilt-free travel!! Running Rock aims to be the most sustainable destination the southern appalachians has ever seen. With plans to eventually be netzero, we intend to minimize our environmental impact while offering world class quality.
Community Oriented
Give a wave! While your family is with us, you're one of us. Customary in this part of the mountains, a quick greeting was part of every day life, so we want to resurrect a kind habit. A quick hello to passersby never hurt a soul:-)
Eco Friendly
Sustainability!! From our construction practices to our furnishings and necessities, we take into account the impact of the choices we make. Some include:
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Reserving 90% of our mountain for green space
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Using locally sourced and environmentally friendly materials when possible
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Reducing our waste
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Harvesting only the trees necessary and then using that material to build.
Education Minded
Learning all the time!! Living among the people and environment of the southern Appalachians and looking for more sustainable solutions, we hope to share the richness this culture and these mountains have taught us. And maybe, we can pass along a few ideas about being more ecofriendly too. Ask about our Pollinators Program.
Running Rock, the name...
As a teenager Jake and his friends would frequently hike to a great swimming hole hidden deep in the Smokies, about which only a few folks knew existed. Jumping from monster boulder to monster boulder sometimes requiring a running start, the name stuck. In the years since he and his family have continued to jump into and swim in those cold, refreshing waters and it has long been their very favorite swimming hole. It's the kind of secret only real kindness can purchase.