Trails in North Western NC/South Eastern TN?

We are heading out to the Smoky Mountains in about two weeks. We are planning 10 days out there between Balsam and Fontana Dam NC and through Gatlinburg area.

I've been through the dirt trails in the Smoky Mountains. I've seen there isn't much in Nantala or Pisgah National Forests. We are planning on doing Heintooga Ridge Road, the loop out to Cataloochee and then out the fire roads to Max Patch.

Are there any other roads/fire tire roads/forest roads out there? not looking for anything crazy. just somewhere we can get off the beaten path and get to see the Heart of north western NC/south eastern TN.

Thanks

 

Rich Mountain Road is a possibility. Parson Branch Road also.

https://www.smokiesadventure.com/smokymountains/explorations/rich_mountain_road.htm

https://www.smokiesadventure.com/smokymountains/explorations/parsons_branch_road.htm

Parsons Branch may be currently closed, it's hard to find current info. Call the ranger station to be sure.

I'm currently staying the night in Cherokee looking up this very thing! Parsons sounds cool but there was someting about downed trees and bear activity, so it may be closed.

I think Rich Mountain is open now.

 

There is a trail through the mountains near conasauga falls. I am sorry for the vague description but its one of those trails you have to be at in order to be on. Other than that i dont know of many.

 

We did Rich Mountain Road today. It was awesome! The difficulty of the road is null. A Prius could do it. Despite how easy it was we saw only one other vehicle the whole time.

The road is one way so you must get on the road from inside the park near the Cades Cove visitor center and exit the park via the road. On our way toward the visitor center we hit a slow line of tourist traffic. Just a line of cars going 2mph. Once we left the pavement though the story changed! We instantly had the road to ourselves, no other cars or people.

A little over halfway there's a small side road. It only goes about 50' and turns into a foot path. Up the path a very short way is a wonderful log to sit on and enjoy the sounds and sights of the eastern mountain woodlands. It's such a lovely forest! Some pics.



After exiting the park Rich Mountain Road becomes a 2 way paved road called Old Cades Cove Road. We took this to US-321 and then that to US-441. We then followed that to I-40 because we were leaving the area.



Oh yea. We checked Parsons Branch. It was indeed closed at both ends for downed trees.

 

Thanks. We were definitely heading out that way out of Cades. We are planning on getting to Cades EARLY to avoid the stop and go 1-2 mph traffic. We are also looking at Heintooga. Hurricane Creek Road out to Max Patch and the Old Cataloochee turnpike all look like promising if you are still out there in Cherokee.

Hope you enjoyed yourselves out there. We found a great deal on Air BnB for around 45 a night in Cherokee. We are heading out from PA Tuesday.

 

Cool man! We're heading back to Pittsburgh tomorrow.

 

So...Here's an update. Finally back from our 2 week trip to the Smoky mountains.

We ran through several roads, all down in North Western Carolina. I was having too much fun to take pics. There are definitely some great trails down there if you are looking for a break from the Smokie Mountains.

We did the obligatory Heintooga road to Balsam mountain road, which is just a gravel road but still fun to go through. New Found gap was slow going, but we were the only car on Heintooga. The backside of Heintooga leads to Balsam mountain road which is a flat gravel road next to a creek. This was off the blue ridge parkway.

The hurricane creek which was off route 40, right after the rest stop in NC had the potential to be good. Unfortunately, the area is 7 inches short on rain. There were 2 water crossings but the rest were dried up creek beds and dusty trails. Looked like the creek beds would be good water crossings, if the area had it's usual rain fall. the creeks around the area that are usually full flowing were mostly trickles. We took this up to Max Patch Road followed by a short hike to the Max Patch Bald.

the most unexpected ride came on our last day in NC before we headed up to TN. We followed the cataloochee turnpike early and got to the valley around 8:00 am. Saw plenty of Elk in rut. We then took the cataloochee turnpike north to Mount sterling road. As we came out of the park and off Mount Sterling road, we came up to FR 288 which we skipped because we didn't see it on any of our maps: electronic or paper. We kept going about 3-4 more miles and came up on the 2nd FR288 going east. This was a nice ride. Good mix of water crossings with steep entrance and exits. There were also some nice steep hills and rocky areas. in 4 areas we needed 4x4 just to get up the loose rocks/steep angles. angles ranged from 20-30 degree inclines. They were narrow but it's a forest road so it is maintained (IE: they cut trees out of the road). That road brought us out to 40, and out to cold creek road which was paved for the first 1/4 mile then back to gravel. This led us out to Max Patch again, so we took Hurricane Creek out again.

FR288 had enough challenge in it to keep us interested and it was a good surprise down there. We got to the park early every morning to do our hikes, and then did these drives later in the afternoon when the park started to fill up. They weren't hard core off roads but it did suffice.

If any of you plan on going down there and are looking for a place to stay, look up "the hutte" on Air BnB. That was a great guest house to stay in Balsam NC.