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On the Trail in the Smokies

Cataloochee Valley loop via three trails

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Great Smoky Mountains National Park is often called a hiker’s park. And it’s true that, across the seasons, hordes of hikers take to the park’s 850 miles of established trails to immerse themselves in a matchless mix of scenery, biodiversity and human history. They are among the millions and millions of visitors each year to easily the nation’s most visited national park.

The reality, however, is that GSMNP is much more of a driver’s park, with the vast majority of visitors never venturing more than a couple of hundred yards from their vehicles. With nearly 400 miles of maintained roads—paved and otherwise—less active sightseers can easily see stunning vistas at scenic overlooks as well as view wildlife at places such as the Cades Cove loop road and Oconaluftee Visitor Center. For many, that’s enough.

Despite the park’s hundreds of miles of roads, over the years several other roads have been proposed that were either never started or completed. A prime example was a connecting road that would have brought motorists directly from Interstate 40 in Haywood County into the pastoral Cataloochee Valley. And that wasn’t all, according to the Sierra Club’s 1973 Hiker’s Guide to the Smokies; park plans included a visitor center, amphitheater, concessionaire store and (gulp) parking for 300 cars. Had all or even part of that proposed development been constructed, the character of the secluded valley would have been forever altered. Fortunately, stiff local opposition prompted the park service to abandon its plans.

Yes, visitation in the valley has increased markedly since the successful reintroduction of the elk early this century, though nothing close to what would have occurred with direct vehicle access from Interstate 40. Unlike the crazily busy Cades Cove, that can require as long as four hours to drive its 11-mile loop, “Catalooch” remains a peaceful refuge from the “world’s hard groove,” to borrow a phrase from Thomas Wolfe. Framed by towering ridges, the valley still evokes a powerful, timeless sense of place.

As for hiking, in my view the valley’s best loop hike—if a moderately strenuous one—isn’t the misnamed Boogerman Loop that is actually a lasso route, but rather a 9½-miler employing three “fork” trails: Big Fork Ridge, Caldwell Fork and Rough Fork. But hiking even one of these paths a short distance can be rewarding in various ways.

Regarding the entire loop, I prefer to hike it clockwise, starting with Big Fork Ridge and closing it with Rough Fork. But counterclockwise is also a good option, though perhaps slightly more challenging because of a fairly steep climb on part of Rough Fork Trail.

If hiking clockwise by starting on Big Fork Ridge Trail, upon crossing Rough Fork on a short foot log you may encounter several wet and muddy places created by several seeps and creek branches. To your right, there’s an extensive former farming area, where elk acclimation pens were set up in 2001 when the park began a five-year experimental release program that proved successful. You then begin a steep climb on drier ground.

The trail soon climbs to a sharp switchback on Big Fork Ridge, where there’s not only a nice view of the formidable Balsam Mountain but also of several hemlock skeletons—dead trees that no doubt are victims of the invasive hemlock woolly adelgid. It’s a sad sight, one that is all too common around Cataloochee Valley.

The trail begins descending the opposite side of Big Fork Ridge, working toward Caldwell Fork. The hiking isn’t easy in places, as there is often quite a bit of log and limb debris, as well as some gullies from erosion. Like most trails in Cataloochee, this path is open to horses.

After the trail flattens, you reach the site of an old school before crossing Caldwell Fork on a slightly bowed foot log. Turn right on Caldwell Fork Trail to almost immediately reach one of my favorite lunch spots in the Smokies: an open area where Caldwell Fork and McKee Branch trails meet.

Just a short distance up Caldwell Fork Trail, a steep side trail to your left leads to the graves of Levi Shelton and Elzie Caldwell, killed by Union raider Colonel George Kirk and his band of plunderers near the end of the Civil War. As the trail climbs above Caldwell Fork, you can see the gap you recently hiked through on Big Fork Ridge and the lovely cascades in the stream below.

There’s a significant rock-hopping ford of Double Gap Branch just before the next trail junction with Hemphill Bald Trail (formerly called Double Gap Trail from here to a junction on Cataloochee Divide). To the right of the trail signpost may be a waist-high cairn that perhaps has been several years in the making.

From here, it’s not far to the attractive Caldwell Fork backcountry campsite on the opposite side of the stream. The campsite is reached via a span of split logs and then a footbridge crossing the fork. Yes, horses are allowed here too, but hikers can find inviting tent sites away from the main trail.

Pressing on, after a brief climb you reach a sign noting BIG POPLARS on a side trail to the right. One of the giants has been lopped off, likely by lightning, but the largest poplar alone is well worth the short side trip. Some of its limbs near the crown are as large as trees themselves, and its diameter surely rivals that of any yellow poplar in the park.

Back on the main trail, in the shadow of a large silverbell, you proceed toward Caldwell Fork Trail’s upper terminus at Rough Fork Trail. After hiking past a large, mossy boulder field stretching down the ridge to your left, you arrive at the trail junction. Turn right here, toward the Big Hemlock backcountry campsite located just off trail amid a maze of rhododendron. The camp is only a half-mile or so to the Woody Place, a two-story frame house built early in the 20th century.

Continue down the main trail, crossing Rough Fork on a foot log that ends in rocky running water. Next you turn right to cross another log that leads to a wide roadbed on the far side. The walking—strolling, really—is easy the rest of the way, with only one more footbridge to traverse. Upon closing the loop, you will have enjoyed slightly more than nine miles of hiking in one of the loveliest valleys in the southern Appalachians.

About the author: Ben Anderson is author of Smokies Chronicle: A Year of Hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (blairpub.com).

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