Top Trails: Great Smoky Mountains National Park: 50 Must-Do Hikes for Everyone

by Johnny Molloy

Overview

Discover classic destinations and lesser-known jewels of Great Smoky Mountains National Park through 50 incomparable hikes.

With its secluded mountain waterways, awe-inspiring views from grassy balds, diverse plant and animal life, and impressive stands of old-growth forest, Great Smoky Mountains National Park offers countless opportunities for outdoor adventure. To find the best of them, follow expert author Johnny Molloy—who has spent more than 900 overnights in the Smokies, hiking and camping!

Leave the roads to explore the heart of the park—whether you’re looking for an easy family stroll to a soothing stream, a seven-mile trek through a spruce forest atop a peaceful ridge, or a panoramic 22-mile overnighter. You’ll experience the best of the treasured national park that lies along the border of North Carolina and Tennessee in Top Trails: Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Inside you’ll find:

• 50 favorite routes for hikers, backpackers, and cyclists
• Detailed maps and elevation profiles
• Trailhead directions and “don’t get lost” milestones
• Key at-a-glance information, including trail length, difficulty, features, and facilities
• Expert trail commentary

Johnny considers the Smokies his home stomping ground, so he makes sure you have the necessary information to enjoy Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Whether you’re looking for a scenic walk to stretch your legs, a full-day hike, or a rewarding backpacking trip, you’ll find it here.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643591001
Publisher:	Wilderness Press
Publication date:	09/12/2023
Series:	Top Trails
Edition description:	3rd Revised ed.
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Johnny Molloy is a writer and adventurer who lives in Johnson City, Tennessee, and spends his winters in Florida. His passion for the outdoors was ignited on his very first backpacking trip in Great Smoky Mountains National Park while he was a student at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. That initial foray unleashed a love of the outdoors that has led the Tennessee native to spend most of his time backpacking, canoe camping, and tent camping for the past three decades, including more than 900 nights backpacking in the Smokies.

The results of his efforts are more than 85 outdoors guidebooks. His writings include hiking, camping, paddling, and how-to guides, as well as books about true outdoor adventures throughout the eastern United States. Johnny continues to write and travel extensively throughout the United States, endeavoring in a variety of outdoor pursuits.

Away from the trail, Johnny's interests include Christian studies, American history, and University of Tennessee sports. He is also a Gideon and an active member of Christ Community Church in Johnson City.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1: Abrams Creek and Cades Cove Area
Trail 1: Pine Mountain Loop
Trail Use: Day Hiking, Backpacking, Horses
Length: 8.1 miles, 4-5½ hours
Vertical Feet: ±1000
Difficulty: Level 2-3
Trail Type: Loop
Features: Summit, Ridgeline, Stream, Autumn Colors, Wildflowers, Great Views, Backcountry Camping, Swimming
Facilities (Seasonal): Campground, Restrooms, Water

From the lowest trailhead in the park, follow lovely Abrams Creek on a watery hike past numerous shoals and huge pools, eventually fording the big stream. A low ridge offers views of Look Rock. Wander through oak woods to Scott Gap, and then reach a high point on the shoulder of Pine Mountain. Finally, descend to Abrams Creek, this time spanning it by bridge.

Best Time

This hike requires making what is the biggest ford in the park: across lower Abrams Creek. With that in mind, midsummer through late fall offers the lowest water for fording. Outside that, winter offers great solitude, and the low elevations make this hike doable when the high country is frigid. In May, the mountain laurel blooms in the Abrams Creek watershed can be spectacular.

Finding the Trail

From the intersection of US 411/TN 33 and US 129/ TN 115 in Maryville, Tennessee, take US 129/Alcoa Highway south for 7 miles. At the four-way intersection, bear right to continue south on US 129. In 3.6 miles, bear left at the T to keep south on US 129, and continue 7.1 miles to Chilhowee Lake. Just past the intersection with the Foothills Parkway, turn left (north) on Happy Valley Road, following it 5.9 miles to Abrams Creek Road. Turn right on Abrams Creek Road and drive 0.7 mile, passing the ranger station. The parking area is on the right just after the ranger station. The Cooper Road Trail starts at the rear of Abrams Creek Campground.

Park your car in the designated area near the ranger station. Do not park in the campground, which is gated during the cold season.

Trail Description

This hike would be rated less difficult if it weren’t for the ford of Abrams Creek, widely regarded as the most troublesome in the park. But don’t let the ford discourage you from taking this scenic loop hike. A drive-up campground and three backcountry campsites along the route make trailside overnighting easy. First you’ll leave Abrams Creek Ranger Station, tracing a gravel park road to Abrams Creek Campground. Join Cooper Road Trail, rambling along Abrams Creek to meet small Kingfisher Creek. Surmount a ridge with views to enter the rugged Abrams Creek gorge, passing Little Bottoms campsite #17.

Wander through a past burn on an open rocky mountainside before reaching that potentially troublesome ford. Beyond here, it’s uphill through quiet pine–oak woods to make Scott Gap. Join an old jeep road to skirt the western shoulder of Pine Mountain. Descend via switchbacks on the thickly wooded north side of Pine Mountain to reach Abrams Creek yet again, this time near old homesites. A footlog avails a safe ending to the hike.

Leave the parking area, [1] walking the gravel road upstream along Abrams Creek. Reach quaint 16-site Abrams Creek Campground at 0.4 mile. Pass around a pole gate, joining Cooper Road Trail [2] as it traverses a streamside flat over which tower tall white pines. Beech, maple, and holly are scattered in the understory. Surmount a small bluff, then come to Kingfisher Branch at 0.9 mile. The trail and stream become one for a short distance, then divide.

Reach a trail junction at 1.3 miles. [3] Cooper Road backcountry campsite #1 is just a short ways farther on Cooper Road Trail, but this hike turns right on Little Bottoms Trail, crossing Kingfisher Branch a final time. Pass the cool waters of small Herndon Spring, located at the base of a dead hemlock, just before climbing a ridge. The 200-foot ascent leads through scrubby woodlands, recovering from fire. Look left for northwesterly views of Chilhowee Mountain and the tower at Look Rock.

Descend from a gap in the ridge. The rumbles of Abrams Creek return. The slender singletrack path winds along the gorge slope, finding Abrams Creek at 2.0 miles. Here, Buck Shank Branch—one of the Smokies’ all-time great names—flows into Abrams Creek. Now you hike directly along the rock-strewn waterway, bordered by alder. Mountain laurel flanks the path.

At 2.5 miles, step over Mill Branch (a common Smokies name) and enter Little Bottoms, a now-wooded flat, once a settlers’ home and farm. The hiking is easy here. Pass the official spur trail to Little Bottoms backcountry campsite #17, at 2.9 miles. [4]

The scenery changes as the gorge closes and the path rises to a steep slope, scarred by past fires and storms. Open onto a rocky, treeless incline with Abrams Creek crashing below. Westerly views of Chilhowee Mountain open here, too. The slender path meets Hatcher Mountain Trail at 3.6 miles. [5] Stay right and downhill, now on Hatcher Mountain Trail, to reach another trail junction in a streamside rhododendron thicket at 3.8 miles. [6] Stay right with the Hannah Mountain Trail, immediately fording Abrams Creek. Use your trekking poles or grab a stick to aid your crossing of the irregular depths. Avoid the ultraslippery flat rock slabs. In late summer or fall, the crossing will be a minor nuisance, but in winter or early spring use good judgment as to whether or not to ford.

Climb from Abrams Creek, turning up a dark rhododendron hollow. Other greenery includes galax, white pine, and holly. At 4.4 miles, split a gap. Cruise piney south-facing slopes on a nearly level, needle-carpeted track. Reach clear Scott Gap Branch at 5.1 miles. Make Scott Gap and a five-way trail junction at 5.4 miles. [7] Backcountry campsite #16 is down the least-used path and has a small spring.

Our loop turns right on the wide, rocky double-track Rabbit Creek Trail, heading away from Rabbit Creek and up the shoulder of Pine Mountain, where views of the ridges and hollows of the lower Abrams Creek valley open. Dogwood, sourwood, sassafras, and pine provide colorful fall displays.

Reach the loop’s high point, 2,050 feet, at 6.0 miles. [8] The ensuing descent off the mountain’s north slope is mostly gentle. Here is where a tornado back in 2011 downed an amazing number of trees. The forest is now regenerating on its own schedule. Make hard switchbacks at 6.4 and 6.8 miles, as the wide wooded trail winds downhill. Another switchback at 7.5 miles opens a view of Abrams Creek. Soon you reach the stream bottoms, passing a pair of homesites.

At 7.8 miles, bridge Abrams Creek on an ingenious footlog. [9] The side you are on is set on a concrete footing designed to let the footlog slide off in flood. The other side is chained to a big boulder, allowing it to turn downstream in high water yet not float away. After floods, the unchained side of the log is restored. Turn upstream beyond the crossing. Soon reach Abrams Creek Ranger Station, completing your hike at 8.1 miles. [10]

Milestones
1. 0.0 Abrams Creek parking area
2. 0.4 Cooper Road Trail at Abrams Creek Campground
3. 1.3 Little Bottoms Trails
4. 2.9 Campsite #17 spur
5. 3.6 Hatcher Mountain Trail
6. 3.8 Hannah Mountain Trail and Abrams Creek ford
7. 5.4 Scott Gap
8. 6.0 Pine Mountain high point
9. 7.8 Abrams Creek
10. 8.1 Abrams Creek parking area

Table of Contents

The Top Trails Series

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Map

Map Legend

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Trails Table

Using Top Trails

Introduction to Great Smoky Mountains National Park

On the Trail

1. Abrams Creek and Cades Cove Area

• Pine Mountain Loop
• Abrams Falls via Abrams Creek Ranger Station
• Abrams Falls via Cades Cove
• Gregory Bald via Gregory Ridge
• Rich Mountain Loop Trail
• Spence Field and Russell Field Loop
• Rocky Top via Lead Cove

2. Tremont and Elkmont Area

• Spruce Flats Falls
• Waterfalls of Historic Tremont
• Buckhorn Gap via Meigs Creek
• Walker Sisters Place via Little Greenbrier Trail
• Cucumber Gap Loop
• Laurel Falls
• The Chimney Tops
• Road Prong Hike
• Silers Bald via Clingmans Dome

3. Mount Le Conte, Greenbrier, and Cosby Area

• Charlies Bunion
• Alum Cave Bluffs
• Rainbow Falls
• Baskins Falls
• Brushy Mountain via Grotto Falls
• Ramsey Cascades
• Albright Grove
• Maddron Bald Loop
• Mount Cammerer via Low Gap

4. Twentymile and Fontana Lake Area

• Twentymile Loop
• Gregory Bald Loop
• Shuckstack from Twentymile Ranger Station
• Lost Cove Loop
• Fontana Lake Hike
• Ruins of Proctor

5. Deep, Forney, and Noland Creeks Area

• CCC Loop
• Indian Creek and Sunkota Ridge Loop
• Falls Loop of Deep Creek
• Newton Bald Loop
• Fork Ridge Loop
• Forney Creek Loop
• Andrews Bald

6. Smokemont, Cataloochee, and Big Creek Area

• Smokemont Loop
• Cabin Flats Loop
• Sweat Heifer Cascades via Kephart Prong
• Flat Creek Falls and Vista
• Hemphill Bald Hike
• Big Fork Ridge Loop
• Pretty Hollow Gap Loop
• Boogerman Loop
• Little Cataloochee Church
• Mount Sterling via Mount Sterling Gap
• Low Gap Loop
• Midnight Hole and Mouse Creek Falls

Appendix 1: Local Resources

Appendix 2: Useful Sources

Index

About the Author