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Smokies Chronicle

A Year of Hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

This is the first in a series of hikes from the 2017 book Smokies Chronicle: A Year of Hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park by Ben Anderson. Anderson, a trail patroller and Adopt-a- Campsite volunteer for Great Smokies Mountain National Park, lives in Asheville. “The book provides a fresh look at the Smokies wilderness as witnessed during its four distinct seasons” in 40 individual hikes and personal narratives.

“Something for everyone” is an overused phrase and perhaps an often inaccurate one. But when it comes to recreational opportunities in the Deep Creek area of the park, the expression seems to fit quite nicely. 

Deep Creek offers several hiking (and strolling) options, including long and short loops featuring some of the park’s loveliest waterfalls. Other popular activities include backpacking, fly fishing, horseback riding, front country camping, picnicking, jogging, and even some cycling—a rarity on trails in the Smokies. But perhaps Deep Creek’s chief recreational claim to fame is its tubing, especially from about mid-June to mid-August. On hot summer days when water levels are favorable, Deep Creek is clearly the place to be for tubing in the Smokies—what with its bouncy, bracing run of a mile or so from the mouth of Indian Creek to the park boundary.

Predictably on this cool February morning, there are no tubists (not to be confused with cubists) in sight. In fact, there are very few humans, period, and just a couple of vehicles in the spacious day-use parking area. At the picnic ground, the lone discernable activity is a doe poking around one of the tables. As for the campground, the only thing humming—well, blaring—is a leaf blower operated by a park employee, even with the campground opening still about seven weeks out.

Although I have been to Deep Creek dozens of times for various purposes, including tubing, today I plan to see a bit of new territory. The idea is to fashion a hiking loop of about ten miles, starting with my walking up Tom Branch Road about a mile from its Deep Creek bridge. Next, I pick up Thomas Divide Trail for roughly 3¼ miles to its junction with Indian Creek Motor Trail, which I have never hiked before. The latter trail takes me down to three familiar trails that return me to my car in the day-use parking area. Previously, I have done several loop hikes in the Deep Creek area, but this somewhat unconventional loop involving five trails and a road is a first for me. 

I discover right away that Tom Branch Road has recently reopened to vehicle traffic, after being closed for several days because of snow and ice. But there isn’t much traffic on this Thursday in February; in fact, I encounter just two vehicles on my 20-minute walk up the road to the Thomas Divide trailhead. By now, the road is mostly thawed, giving way to mud, save for a few icy potholes in the shade. During the winter, the primary benefits of walking the road are the nice views and sounds of Tom Branch to my left, only a short distance from where the branch drops dramatically off the ridge to create a much-admired 80-foot-high waterfall descending into Deep Creek. As I reach a spot where the road levels from its initially steep climb, I get a glimpse of the distant Smokies’ divide high above the Deep Creek watershed.

Soon I arrive at the trailhead for Thomas Divide Trail, one of the longest paths in the Smokies. The trail follows the crescent-shaped divide for nearly 14 miles, attaining a mile-high elevation on Nettle Creek Bald, which is within three miles of the trail’s northern terminus at Newfound Gap Road. Here at its southern end, in contrast, the elevation is not much higher than 2,000 feet. Along the way there are two deep gaps: the aptly named Deeplow Gap and Tuskee Gap, a few miles farther north.

Almost immediately after setting out on Thomas Divide Trail, I take a short side trail to my left to the Wiggins-Watson Cemetery. It’s perfectly still and quiet as I arrive there, until the cawk-cawk-cawk of a crow intrudes, as does the buzz of an airplane shortly thereafter. But the cemetery remains a beautiful, peaceful spot in the late-winter sun, with a nice view of 3,400-foot-high Sharp Top along the park boundary west of Deep Creek. Near the perimeter of the cemetery, a prominent granite marker, chiseled with the words Together Forever, marks the final resting places for Jesse W. and Edna M. Watson. Mr. Watson lived from 1915 to 1977; no year of passing is noted for Mrs. Watson, born in 1922. One might surmise that she has not yet departed this life nearly a century later. 

Soon it’s time to rejoin the main trail, as it’s already past noon and there are many miles to cover. As Thomas Divide Trail climbs rather steeply, I look south toward the prominent Standing Indian Mountain, standing 5,498 feet high along the Appalachian Trail, just north of the Georgia border. In a few weeks, the mountain will see heavy foot traffic from the hordes of hikers who set out from Springer Mountain, Georgia, with the goal of reaching Maine’s Mount Katahdin, twenty-one-hundred miles north of Standing Indian. If history holds, about 25 percent of the 2016 “thru hikers” will make it end to end. The rest will fall by the wayside, many before reaching the park. Needless to say, completing even a big chunk of the AT is not an easy feat.

Farther up the trail, I get another distant view of the Smokies’ crest, this one featuring evergreen slopes clothed in snow. Soon I reach Stone Pile Gap, which these days might be called Boulder Gap instead as two boulders sit in the gap just inside the park boundary. Across from the boulders, a sign marks the beginning of Stone Pile Gap Trail, which drops sharply off the ridge before arriving at Indian Creek in slightly less than a mile. Stone Pile Gap brings back memories of the 1980s, when Karen and I stopped here and discussed how nice it must be to live in one of the houses just outside the park boundary, in the pastoral Galbraith Creek community of Swain County. I grab a quick snack as I rest in the sun on one of the boulders and then continue on Thomas Divide Trail.

I was last on this section of Thomas Divide Trail in June 2015, when I decided to take on a hike of 18 miles round-trip to do my Adopt-a-Campsite duty at Newton Bald backcountry campsite. I thought that distance was appropriate, as I had just retired from my job at a small college after 18 years. On this day, however, I continue on Thomas Divide Trail only a couple of miles beyond Stone Pile Gap before picking up Indian Creek Motor Trail. As I climb toward the junction, I encounter several spots with deep gullies, apparently from heavy rains since I was last here. I also begin to see a few lingering patches of snow on either side of the trail in places that have northern exposure.

At the expansive junction of Thomas Divide and Indian Creek Motor Trails, I decide to eat a late lunch. I land on a comfortable log to the right, where Thomas Divide Trail has left the roadbed to become an actual footpath. It’s a wonderful perch in the sun, with fine distant views to my left and right. At just under 3,500 feet, it’s also the highest hiking elevation I’ve attained all year. After lunch, I begin a steady descent to Georges Branch, Indian Creek, and Deep Creek. 

Ironically, there has never been any motoring on the short Indian Creek Motor Trail. The trail—an old roadbed—was constructed as part of an ill-conceived plan to build a motor road in the area, before the project was abandoned in the mid-1970s. Today, the steep, wet, rocky trail shows definite signs of neglect; it appears to be little-used by hikers. As I continue descending, there’s a large blowdown to the right, one that has split to somewhat resemble an outsized wooden crocodile’s snout. Sunkota Ridge, on the far side of Indian Creek, soon looms directly in front of me. In a few more minutes, I hear the rush of Georges Branch, hurrying past the junction of Indian Creek Motor and Deeplow Gap Trails. At the junction, the trail sign indicates it is one-tenth mile to Indian Creek (not Motor) Trail, but if so it’s the longest 176 yards in existence. Upon arriving at the latter trail, I note a sign that much more accurately states the distance is three-tenths mile. 

Almost immediately after turning left onto Indian Creek Trail, I cross a bridge where Georges Branch tumbles into Indian Creek, which sparkles in the late-winter sun. A bit farther down the trail, near boxwoods that no doubt were planted at an old homestead, the ground has been chewed up by wild boar. Old-timers called them Rooshians because of the belief they were brought to western North Carolina from the Ural Mountains of Russia. The walking is easy and pleasant as I continue to descend gradually toward Deep Creek. After passing the lower-elevation trailhead for Stone Pile Gap, I encounter the first of many people I’ll see before I arrive back at my car—hikers, joggers, even a cyclist are among the ranks who have come out, perhaps after work or school in nearby Bryson City. At the short side trail to picturesque Indian Creek Falls, two women with small children have parked a stroller so that they can walk down the steep trail to the falls.

I meet up with Deep Creek Trail where the creek’s popular tubing run begins. As always, it’s fun to look at the creek and recall past tubing adventures on hot summer days. Water levels today are much higher and pushier than they were for any of my tubing trips—no surprise considering the heavy rainfall and significant snowfall of the past few months. Near the car, I stop, as always, to admire Tom Branch Falls as it spills off the ridge to join Deep Creek. I offer to take a smart-phone photo of a couple in order to complement the selfie they’ve just shot. 

Back at the parking lot, I meet friendly local residents coming and going to enjoy Deep Creek on a beautiful February day. I drive out of the lot but soon decide to park next to the picnic ground so that I can regroup at the spot where Karen and I enjoyed so many outings with our young sons in the late 1980s and early 90s, before moving to Florida for a few years. I’m alone except for small groups of joggers who periodically pass by. But if I close my eyes, I can imagine two little boys on a picnic—and even a tiny firstborn whose parents have brought him here on Labor Day 1987 when he was only about six weeks old. Ah, the happy longtime memories of Deep Creek.

Round-trip miles hiked: 9.9

From Smokies Chronicle: A Year of Hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park by Ben Anderson. Reprinted with permission of Blair Publisher. You can purchase a copy of Smokies Chronicle: A Year of Hiking in Great Smoky Mountains National Park at blairpub.com.

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