Walnut Creek Preserve, an equestrian community located in the beautiful foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina, lies closest to the resort community of Lake Lure, famous for its golf and boating. But Walnut Creek Preserve is not a resort. It is a planned equestrian community of over 2,100 acres of forest trails surrounded by only 25 home sites prepared for horse owners and their beloved horses.
Walnut Creek Preserve has been designed with horseback riding, hiking and nature study in mind. Horse owners and hikers struggle with a frustrating truth: A small family farm may have enough pasture for horses and a few trails, but rarely contains sufficient acreage for pleasurable riding and hiking, day in and day out. Large acreage becomes a maintenance burden for most families. Walnut Creek Preserve offers the best of both worlds: reasonably sized farm acreage surrounding over 50 miles of private, well maintained trails. Walnut Creek Preserve is a community made up of like minded people whose greatest joy is a walk, jog or horseback ride in the woods, a picnic by the waterfall, or a casual dinner watching the sun set over the mountains.
The Preserve’s 2,100 acres of forest and pasture land shelter a tremendous variety of indigenous plant and animal life, including several rare and threatened species. To assure their survival, only 25 wooded and equestrian home sites averaging 20 acres each will ever be offered for sale, and the remaining 1,500 acres of wilderness are protected in perpetuity by deeded conservation easements.
North Carolina is known for its many cultural and recreational opportunities and the immediate area surrounding Walnut Creek Preserve is no exception. Chimney Rock and Lake Lure are just minutes away. Excellent golf courses abound. The North Carolina state theater is “up the road” in Flat Rock. Asheville and its artist colony is less than an hour away. The well recognized equestrian community of Tryon, North Carolina (home to the Tryon International Equestrian Center and the Foothills Equestrian and Nature Center) makes Polk County a mecca for horse lovers and those who serve them. Walnut Creek Preserve provides easy access to much of the best that North Carolina has to offer to lovers of culture, nature and an invigorating life style. We invite you to learn more about this special land and the preservation project - its history and its future..