Greenville, SC Outdoor Activities

The referee surveys the field, his eagle eyes scanning the masked figures who silently dart behind inflatable cones and crawl through the forest. The silence breaks as a player makes a break from the woods only to be struck by green pellets slamming against his chest. Satisfied that the shot was fair, the ref keeps the game moving in all its paint-splattered glory.

This is a typical scene at Wolverine Paintball, where seasoned staff members are dedicated to maintaining rigorous safety during adrenaline-fueled games on the facility’s sprawling, tree-dappled course. Wolverine’s field rules keep play in check, whereas eco-friendly paintballs keep players away from toxic materials with colorful pigments that contain no oil or tree tears.

At Heritage Outdoors’ retail shop and indoor archery range, a team of nature enthusiasts equips visitors for forest exploration and animal tracking with archery lessons and a full stock of attire and gear from BowTech, Browning, and Mossberg. During archery lessons and open practice, the shop’s staff outfits archers with bows and arrows before they swarm Heritage’s 16 archery lanes to test their accuracy, precision, and ability to withstand Robin Hood’s merry band of hecklers. A collection of brand-name hunting, fishing, and archery equipment abounds within the onsite shop, where guests can find the tools they need to thoroughly reconnect with nature.

The idea for an annual barbecue expo began slow-cooking in 2010 at a family lunch. The Boyds thought about organizing a little barbecue competition and ended up luring 8,500 barbecue enthusiasts to their "small" cook-off and fundraiser. Now in its third year, the charitable event continues to develop flavor and raise money for local schools while packing bellies with some of the area's best barbecue recipes.

With napkins in hand, attendees can follow the smoky scents and sounds of sauce-splattered high-fives from the tents of a variety of vendors. Ten teams of grilling gurus face off in a whole-hog cook-off, with the winners earning a cash prize and a spot in the state championship later this year. A new Chick-fil-A sauce competition sifts through the day's top toppings until a winner is crowned. Between bites, guests can also savor the festival's many attractions, including a police dog demonstration, a petting zoo, and a BMX bike show, where riders wow onlookers by performing tricks and bunny-hopping over smokers.

Kim Warner’s daughter, Clare, was riding whitewater by age 3, and had advanced to doing it dressage style the following season. The owner of Rafting With My Kids, Warner has safely launched families since 1988, when she and her outfitters turned their condo in Asheville into a base camp for trips down the Tuckasegee, Green, and French Broad rivers. Now in its 24th season, a group of CPR- and first-aid-certified guides lead exhilarating two-hour voyages exclusively on the Tuckasegee River. Their gear includes lifejackets designed specifically for kids, enabling adventurers as young as 4 to pile into inflatable rafts with a guardian and older kids the freedom to venture out in two-person duckies. The water is only 3–5 feet deep on average and, as Warner puts it on the business’s website, the rapids are not “too hardcore.” Each guide carries a cell phone and a first-aid kit, as well as light snacks of cookies and peanut-butter or cheese crackers to keep rafters energized.

Though water is the world's most abundant resource, white water is a bit more difficult to find. The guides and adventurers at Nantahala Outdoor Center have traveled as far as Panama to find the best rapids—a dedication to the thrill of the outdoors that has attracted the attention and awe of such publications as National Geographic. Still, despite the churning siren calls of international waters, the American South's Smoky Mountains offer plenty to explore. When not leading regular white-water expeditions down seven local rivers—including the Chattooga, Pigeon, and Nolichucky—Nantahala's guides set out for off-water adventures in the surrounding hills, zipping along the scenic Nantahala Gorge—formed over several millennia from fossilized rapids—and setting out for waterfall hikes among mountain trails. In addition to their guided explorations, Nantahala Outdoor Center also conducts outdoor classes, equipping students with kayaking know-how as well as skills to survive among the wilderness' feral park rangers.

A vast wooden bucket—printed with the words "world's largest gem mine bucket"—dominates Elijah Mountain Gem Mine's landscape. The immense receptacle, standing at 7 feet high and 8 feet wide, holds up to 30,000 pounds of dirt strewn with gems, jewels, and fossils. Families fill their buckets with the gem-studded dirt, strap on their prospector hats, and sift through the loot with the help of wooden flumes. The flumes, all-weather and wheelchair-accessible, wash away dirt to reveal fossils, quartz crystals, uncut emeralds, and other treasures to take home. Miners can opt for specialty buckets that contain higher concentrations of certain stones and fossils. A rock shop and 3,000-square-foot antique mall are stocked with sundries from the United States and Europe that, unlike precious stones or the White House's water slide, are displayed in plain sight.