GASTON GROWING AS A TOURIST DESTINATION.

• Author: Blake, Kathy
• Position: COMMUNITY CLOSE-UP: GASTON COUNTY

While Gaston County sometimes is hidden by Charlotte's shadow, its future as a tourist destination grows brighter by the day. Whether they arrive for the day, weekend or longer, visitors are welcomed with a continuously growing itinerary of things to do and places to eat, drink and stay.

Visit North Carolina, the tourism promotion arm of Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, says Gaston County visitors spent $201.5 million in 2020. While that's 30.9% less than the year prior thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic and its stay-at-home orders, Michael Applegate, Gaston County's director of tourism development, says that amount is rising again. "We won't have 2021 figures until August, but we track all of our hotel activity weekly, and as of April 2021, we began surpassing 2019 levels not just 2020 levels," he says. "So, 2019 was an historic year for tourism, and we've been surpassing that on a weekly basis"

Visitors have a variety of places to spend their dollars. Gaston County has 15 incorporated towns, with county seat Gastonia in the middle, Belmont and Mount Holly in the east, and Kings Mountain and Cherryville in the west. Each community offers unique adventures, whether you want a day outside on a river or inside at a museum.

Visitors also can unwind at eateries, craft breweries, distilleries and name-brand lodging. "We're right here in a quickly growing metro area, but we have access to two rivers, multiple lakes and state parks with dozens of miles of hiking trails," Applegate says. "We try to focus on hike-bike-paddle. We're a hotbed for it in the Southeast at a location that's easy to get to, and that's our story to tell."

OUTDOORS

Applegate fields many questions about Gaston County. And a few years ago, someone asked for the can't miss attraction. "I said Crowders Mountain, because that's the icon," he says. "That's where people take their selfies. That's were people get out of their cars and say it's where they want to go."

Pet-friendly Crowders Mountain State Park has 11 trails through its 5,210 acres, which are a 15-minute drive west of downtown Gastonia. Hikers can climb to the mountain's 1,625-foot summit--one of two peaks in the park--or walk the 12-mile Ridgeline Trail. The park's 7-acre lake is open for fishing, and there's family-oriented camping sites and ones that are ADA accessible.

The largest piece of Catawba Lands Conservancy land is near Spencer Mountain, where the South Fork River flows through hardwood...