Cataloochee Divide Trail

21 May 2011, 6.2 miles

The trailhead is at Cove Creek Gap at the Cataloochee entrance to the park (point B).  Access to the Cataloochee entrance is from North Carolina exit 20 on Interstate 40 (point A).  It's about 5.7 miles from the Interstate to the park entrance, but it's a slow drive.  The road is very narrow and crooked, and towards the top it's a one lane dirt road with very sharp drop offs and no guard rails.  The crest of Cataloochee Divide forms the park boundary, and Cove Creek Gap is one of several gaps in Cataloochee Divide.  None of these "gaps" are much of a gap; they are really all just slight dips.

From the trailhead (point B), the trail proceeds 6.4 miles along the crest of the ridge to the junction with the Hemphill Bald Trail at Double Gap (point F).  Proceeding from the trailhead, the best view to the west into Big Cataloochee is about 1.2 miles from the trailhead (point C).  Panther Gap is about 1.9 miles from the trailhead and the best view outside the park to the east is just past Panther Gap at about 2.0 miles (point D).  On this particular day, I stopped at about 3.1 miles from the trailhead (point E), rather than hiking the entire trail.

I hiked 3.1 miles from the trailhead (point B) to a good stopping place (point E), for a total round trip of 6.2 miles.

Cataloochee entrance to the park.

Trailhead, Cataloochee Divide Trail, Big Cataloochee, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 5/21/2011 from Jerry Bryan on Vimeo.

The trailhead for the Cataloochee Divide Trail is at the Cataloochee entrance to the park.  The Cataloochee entrance is at the crest of a ridge known as Cataloochee Divide, at a gap called Cove Creek Gap.  The name "Cove Creek Gap" almost seems to be a bit of a conceit, because the "gap" is almost at the same elevation as the rest of the ridge.

Cataloochee Divide Trailhead.

View into Big Cataloochee.

View of Big Cataloochee from Cataloochee Divide Trail, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 5/21/2011 from Jerry Bryan on Vimeo.

The best view of Big Cataloochee from the Cataloochee Divide Trail is about 1.2 miles from the trailhead (point C).

View outside of the park to the east from Cataloochee Divide Trail, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 5/21/2011 from Jerry Bryan on Vimeo.

A view outside the park to the east, including Interstate 40 and Suttontown.  Everything in the video is outside the park, although I was standing at the park boundary as I made the video.  The video was made just past Panther Gap about 2.0 miles from the trailhead (point D).