From the 1960s into the 1990s, William Lanier Hunt donated over 100 acres of land to the North Carolina Botanical Garden, including several beautiful rhododendron bluffs located in a gorge along Morgan Creek. The purpose the William Lanier Hunt Arboretum is to protect natural areas and conserve a collection of the diverse woody plants of the southeastern United States. Upstream of and contiguous with the Hunt Arboretum lies the eight-acre Grey Bluff Garden that also protects the steep slopes along Morgan Creek and another extensive rhododendron bluff.