Blue Ridge
Banner Elk
An Avery County college town between two ski mountains, and home of the Woolly Worm Festival.
Last updated October 15, 2026.
- County
- Avery
- Setting
- A small college town in the valley between Sugar Mountain and Beech Mountain
- Elevation
- About 3,701 feet, the figure published for the town
Banner Elk is a town in Avery County at about 3,701 feet. Lees-McRae College sits above a small downtown you can walk in the time it takes a woolly worm to contemplate its future. The town is the valley between bigger names: Sugar Mountain on one side, Beech Mountain up the climb, Grandfather Mountain and the Blue Ridge Parkway as day trips.
Sugar Mountain Resort is next door, in the Town of Sugar Mountain, not inside Banner Elk's town limits. People still stay in Banner Elk to ski there. The dated event this guide can actually put on a calendar is the Woolly Worm Festival.
The Town of Sugar Mountain and Sugar Mountain Resort are adjacent. Beech Mountain is the summit above the valley. Grandfather Mountain is nearby. Boone is to the east via the N.C. 105 corridor. Linville and Linville Falls are day trips toward the Parkway.