Hiking Around Deep Creek

I spent the last three days hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  The plan was to camp at Deep Creek near Bryson City and hike the trails in that part of the park.  Because of the forecast for storms and heavy rain, I ended up staying in a cabin in the campground - a guarantee that no matter how wet I got on the trail, I would have a dry place to sleep.  The forecast was correct, it rained heavily Monday and Tuesday nights as well as during the day Monday and Tuesday.

The rain did not deter our planned hikes.  Monday we completed two loop hikes. The first loop was near the tunnel at the end of Lakeview Drive, known to some as "The Road to Nowhere."  This was the road that was to give access to the North Shore of Fontana Lake, but after many delays and only a few miles and one tunnel constructed, the project was abandoned.

Sign on Lakeview Drive near Bryson City making a statement about the abandoned road project.

The unpaved end of the tunnel. Lakeview Drive stops just short of the other end of the tunnel.

We hiked the short two-mile Goldmine Loop Trail and the Tunnel Bypass Trail from the end of Lakeview Drive.  One end of the 35-mile Lakeshore Trail begins at this tunnel and the other end is near Fontana Dam.  Another hike for another time!

The second loop hike began at the Deep Creek parking area and took us by three waterfalls.  The first is Juney Whank Falls, a 40 foot cascade just 3 tenths of a mile from the parking area.  The name Juney Whank is either from a Cherokee phrase meaning "place where the bear passes" (we didn't see a bear) or refers to Mr. Junaluska "Juney" Whank, who is said to be buried near the falls (no sighting of him either).

Juney Whank Falls from the bridge on the trail;

Just a short distance up the Deep Creek Trail Tom Branch Falls can be seen across Deep Creek. The 75 foot cascade is a little more impressive and quite scenic since it is viewed it from across the creek.

Tom Branch Falls

The third waterfall on this loop is Indian Creek Falls appropriately on the Indian Creek Trail just past the intersection with the Deep Creek Trail.  While only 25 feet high, the falls cascade across a broad slab of bedrock, making it fairly impressive.

Indian Creek Falls

We completed a loop by connecting with the Loop Trail back to the Deep Creek Trail and on to the parking area.  I took an alternate trail, the Deep Creek Horse Trail only because I needed to hike the two-mile trail for the Smokies 900 map. Most people would not opt to hike on a trail that solely exists for horses to reach the Deep Creek Trail without going through a parking area and the heavily traveled portion of the Deep Creek Trail.

After a night of hard rain and a wet start to the day, we delayed hiking the next morning for an hour.  Although cloudy and cool, at least no rain was falling.  We began hiking up Thomas Divide, and as the sign shows,  the trail went up for 5.6 miles.

After 1:00 the cloudy skies gave way to rain, not too bad at first, but then the bottom dropped out. For the next 2 hours we plodded up (again) Indian Creek Motor Road Trail back to Thomas Divide and then Stone Pile Gap Trail.  By then the rain ended and we began to see some sun peeking through the clouds.  Another 2 miles and we were back at our cars and ready to get wet clothes and packs off. 

On a rainy week a cabin beats a tent any time.

All night the rain drummed on the roof.  I was getting my mind ready for a day of rainy hiking, but after 8:00 the clouds began lifting and when we started out at 9:30 the sun was out.  All day we had blue sky, bright sun, and crisp Fall-like air.  Like the day before, the morning was mostly a long climb  up Deeplow Gap Trail and Mingus Creek Trail to Newton Bald.  Although it got cooler as we climbed, our effort kept us warmed up.  We stopped for lunch at the high elevation for the day - about 5000 feet - and really felt the cool air and fresh breeze.  Everyone was putting on another layer or two.

The rest of the day was over ridges and down to our cars along another section of Thomas Divide Trail and Deeplow Gap Trail.  We came upon Little Creek Falls a couple miles from our cars; a scenic cascade to wind up the hike.

Little Creek Falls

Over the three days we hiked more than 33 miles, and I logged 26.5 new trail miles toward the Smokies 900.  We were lucky we only had a few hours of hiking in the rain and had such a beautiful day on our last hike.  

I am all smiles since I have over 266 hiking miles marked on my trail map!