Three Trails off Heintooga Road-Round Bottom Road

My latest hike in the Smokies took me to three trails spread out along several miles on the Heintooga-Round Bottom Road.  Access to this road is from a spur road off the Blue Ridge Parkway at mile 458, only 11 miles from the southern terminus of the BRP.  Signs on the parkway show Balsam Mountain Campground and picnic area.  This road is paved and has two-way traffic to the campground and picnic area. After several miles you reach the GSMNP entrance.   This part of the park has an elevation of around 5,000 feet.

The first trail is the 2.6 mile Flat Creek Trail that roughly parallels the winding road to the picnic area.  Our group decided to hike this in two directions to save driving back and forth in a car shuttle.  The trail was well graded and had only one stream crossing and stepping over a few side streams.  Summer flowers are in bloom now and with the dense canopy, ferns we more the order of the day.  We did see an area of fly poison blooming along the trail.

We reached the picnic area and in a few minutes the group hiking in the other direction drove into the picnic area parking lot.  We loaded up our gear in the cars and entered the gravel, one-way Heintooga-Round Bottom Road.

Photo: RomanticAsheville.com

As the sign indicates this road winds down the mountain toward Cherokee.  At the end of the 14 mile one-way section, it joins Straight Fork Road that enters the Cherokee Reservation and eventually the town of Cherokee.

Our next trail, Spruce Mountain, was a few miles down the road.  The trail is only 1.2 miles and ascends about 800 feet to Spruce Mountain and backcountry Campsite 42 at the end of the trail.  

You would intentionally want to stay at Campsite 42, since it is at the end of an isolated trail that does not connect with any other trail.  At one time, the Polls Gap Trail intersected with Spruce Mountain near the campsite, but the Park Service closed that trail several years ago.  A volunteer was hiking in to the campsite to clean and maintain it. He told us only 50 people use the campsite each year.  He described a night at the campsite as "spooky quiet" especially when the wind is not blowing.

After the short in-and-out trek up and down Spruce Mountain it was back in the cars and a few more miles down the road to the next trail, Palmer Creek.  This trail is 3.3 miles and connects with Pretty Hollow Trail and the Cataloochee area of the park.  Since we were hiking in from Heintooga Road, we did this as an in-and-out hike.

One of two bridges across side creeks of Palmer Creek. A third crossing had no bridge.

From Heintooga Road the trail was steadily downhill most of the way, losing about 1,500 feet. With recent rain, the trail was muddy and slick in some places.  Horses are permitted on tis trail, so there was some erosion evident as well.  Palmer Creek was heard and then visible for the last two miles. There were three crossings of side creeks, one had evidence of one having a bridge, but it was gone.  Rather than rock hop, I changed into water shoes and waded across.  Ditto on the way back, too.

Once at the Pretty Hollow Trail junction and a short lunch break, it was "about face" for the hike back to the cars on Heintooga Road.  This was mostly uphill, gaining back the 1,500 feet of elevation lost hiking in.  It was pleasant hike, but by early afternoon the heat an humidity began to build.

After reaching the cars, I decided to drive home, foregoing another hike off the one-way road.  It seemed a long way in to Cherokee and then the rest of the way home.  There will be at least one more trip down Heintooga Road to access the Balsam Mountain Trail.

I hiked a total of 11.4 miles on all new trails for me, but since 4.4 of those miles were part of in-and-out hiking, I gained 7 miles on the map.  That put me over 435 miles of the 800 miles of trails.  I have completed 60 trails in their entirety.

A break from GSMNP hiking for a couple weeks while on another adventure.  Back to the Smokies trails later in the month.