Andrews Bald

Andrews Bald is a grassy, high-elevation meadow on Forney Ridge, known for its open views across the Smokies. From Kuwohi, it is a 3.6-mile round trip and a good choice if you want a proper mountain walk rather than a quick roadside stop. The trail descends through spruce-fir forest before opening onto the bald, so save energy for the climb back.

Forney Ridge Trail starts just before the Kuwohi visitor information center. The path begins wide and graveled, drops down many stairs, then narrows to dirt. You lose elevation on the way out, which makes the return a strenuous uphill climb. Kuwohi Road and its parking area close in winter. A Smokies parking tag is required for stays over 15 minutes; seasonal pit toilets are at the Kuwohi lot, not at the meadow. Pets are not allowed on this trail.

At the bald, grasses and shrubs frame long, layered mountain ridges. For a photo, keep some of the trail or meadow in the foreground so the distant ridges have scale. Flowering azaleas are a summer highlight; the open ground and high-elevation setting feel very different from the shaded forest on the approach.

The bald is named for Andrew Thompson, a cattle herder who brought livestock here in the 1840s. It is a small clue to the working history behind a place that now feels wild and open.

One explanation is still a hypothesis: ancient large grazers may have helped keep grassy balds clear of trees and shrubs. Researchers have suggested mastodons or woolly mammoths, followed later by bison, elk, and deer. Treat that as a possible long story of the landscape, not a settled explanation.