The Nantahala River (/ˌnæntəˈheɪlə/)[5] is a river in western North Carolina in the United States, within the Nantahala National Forest, and near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Two-lane U.S. Highway 19/74 runs along the river, picnic areas dotting the route. In 1839, this was an unimproved large path, part of what became known as the Trail of Tears as the Cherokee people were forcibly removed from their homelands in this region to west of the Mississippi River and Indian Territory. 

The river rises near the border of Georgia and North Carolina, close to the Southern Nantahala Wilderness and the Appalachian Trail. It flows into the Little Tennessee River at Fontana Lake, a reservoir formed behind Fontana Dam.

The word Nantahala is Cherokee and means "Land of the Noonday Sun".[6] The river runs through a narrow and steep gorge where in some areas the sun reaches the ground only when it is directly overhead during the middle of the day. During the colonial era, Cherokee towns along the Nantahala, upper Hiwassee River, and Valley River in what is now North Carolina were known as the Valley Towns.

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