Since the park was first developed in the mid-80s, many of its facilities have fallen into disrepair. DbD partnered with the Watauga County Tourism Development Authority to prioritize the redevelopment and expansion of this prized local feature.
Designed for Accessibility
From accessible parking to the mountaintop overlook, this redesign puts accessibility at the forefront of the visitor experience. Where parking was once limited and reaching the view required a steep climb and navigating boulders, a new ADA-accessible walkway now provides a safe, continuous route to the summit.
Visitors of all abilities can enjoy panoramic mountain views from the circular overlook, relax in a tranquility garden, or gather at an accessible picnic area – creating a welcoming destination for quiet reflection, shared meals, and unforgettable scenery.
Park
Master Plan
The Howard Knob Park Master Plan includes a modern overlook deck design with a 200 degree view across the mountains. An expanded parking area with accessible spaces and a renovated pavilion to improve on the park’s existing infrastructure. The plan also proposes new features to the park including walking trails, green space, a picnic area, a tranquility garden, and enclosed portable restroom facility.
Entrance
Signage
A new park entrance sign prominently displays the elevation of Howard Knob–an impressive 4,396 feet–visually identifying the park as a destination unto itself. Educational signage will provide visitors with information about the regional Northern Peaks State Trail (NPST), a former DBD trail planning project When constructed, the NPST will span 40 miles across the NC High Country connecting Elk Knob, Snake Mountain, Three Top Mountain and Howard Knob.
Community
Engagement
DbD partnered with the Watauga County TDA to create the Howard Knob Master Plan, building on our history of place branding, trail building, and design & engineering in Boone and the surrounding region. We collaborated with the Watauga Arts Council to incorporate public art into the plan for the park.
Destination by Design partnered with the Boone and Watauga County TDA to redevelop Howard Knob Park, an iconic overlook that had fallen into disrepair since its original development in the mid-1980s. The master plan added a modern overlook deck with a 200-degree mountain view, an ADA-accessible walkway to the summit, expanded accessible parking, a renovated pavilion, and new amenities including a tranquility garden and picnic area. A new entrance sign highlighting the park’s 4,396-foot elevation now marks it as a destination in its own right.
In North Carolina, park planning and engineering work hand in hand when redeveloping a site with steep terrain and aging infrastructure. Howard Knob required exactly that combination, engineering a new accessible route to the summit where reaching the view once meant a steep climb over boulders, then pairing it with entrance and educational signage connecting the park to the broader Northern Peaks State Trail network across the High Country.
Making a landmark truly accessible means rethinking the entire visitor experience, not just adding a ramp. Howard Knob’s redesign put that principle first, replacing a difficult, exclusionary approach to the overlook with a continuous accessible pathway so visitors of all abilities can reach the summit, relax in the tranquility garden, or gather at the accessible picnic area. Public engagement, including collaboration with the Watauga Arts Council on public art, ensured the plan reflected community priorities.
Park planning and design is the process of creating a master plan for a public park’s infrastructure, amenities, and visitor experience, often paired with engineering to bring accessibility and structural improvements to life. For Howard Knob, that meant designing a new overlook deck, accessible walkway, and expanded parking, while integrating trail signage that connects the park to the 40-mile Northern Peaks State Trail spanning Elk Knob, Snake Mountain, Three Top Mountain, and Howard Knob.
Howard Knob Park sits above downtown Boone, North Carolina, rising to 4,396 feet with sweeping views across the Blue Ridge Mountains and Appalachian State University below. Its central location in Watauga County makes it a natural anchor point for the Northern Peaks State Trail, linking the park to other regional summits across the NC High Country.
