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Little Cataloochee Baptist Church in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Sight · Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Little Cataloochee Baptist Church

An 1889 chapel with its original 400-pound bell rewards the hike

Photo: Public Domain
Type
Sight
Nearest trail
1 mi
Audio stories
4 nearby
DirectionsMap

Hear the audio tour

Beech Grove School

Overview

About Little Cataloochee Baptist Church

Why stop

  • The church, cemetery and original bell bring the old settlement into focus.

Heads up

  • Getting here requires a trail hike; it is not a drive-up stop.

Map

Where it is

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SightLittle Cataloochee Baptist Church35.66420, -83.09674
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Plan your stop

Before you go

7 active Great Smoky Mountains alerts

  • ClosureHurricane Helene backcountry trail closures and hazardsHurricane Helene damage has closed backcountry trails and left hazardous crossings; avoid closed routes and heed trail-specific restrictions.Official details
  • CautionBear-related trail, road, shelter, and campsite restrictionsBear activity has closed trails, a shelter, and campsites and restricted pedestrian access on Cherokee Orchard Road; follow the vehicle restrictions and avoid closed areas.Official details
See all 7 alerts
A park ranger sits on a dash-mounted phone, talking, as Parkwolf’s Tour Guide plays “Army Cutworm Moths: A Grizzly Bear Buffet” on Grand Loop Road below Dunraven Pass in Yellowstone
Parkwolf Tour GuideThe highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.

Great Smoky Mountains Tour Guide

Your drive to Little Cataloochee Baptist Church, narrated.

Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.

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Recorded for this place

Beech Grove School
0:00 / 0:34
“Beech Grove School is coming up, a two-room schoolhouse reached by a short walk across Palmer Creek. Cross the wooden footbridge near Pretty Hollow Gap, then follow the walkway to the building.”

Plays as you drive up to Little Cataloochee Baptist Church in the Parkwolf Great Smoky Mountains Tour Guide.

More stories near here in the app

  • Guests Before the Park
  • The Sycamore's Patchwork
  • The Opossum's Bundle
  • Jarvis Palmer House
  • 188 audio storiesacross Great Smoky Mountains’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
  • Wildlife heatmapsfor Black Bear, Elk, Bald Eagle, and 13 more
  • Works offlinemaps, 197 trails, 100 places, and audio download before you lose signal
  • CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
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Guide

More about Little Cataloochee Baptist Church

A chapel that's part of a longer hikeLittle Cataloochee Baptist Church is a small white clapboard chapel in the former Little…

Little Cataloochee Baptist Church is a small white clapboard chapel in the former Little Cataloochee community. It's one of three surviving buildings from the settlement, reached on Little Cataloochee Trail rather than by car. Treat this as a trail stop, not a quick pullout.

The bell is the detail to rememberBuilt in 1889, the church gained its bell tower around 1914.

Built in 1889, the church gained its bell tower around 1914. William Hannah donated the original 400-pound bell, which is still rung by visitors. The belfry is the detail that makes this little chapel easy to pick out among the trees.

Look from the cemeteryThe church stands beside its cemetery.

The church stands beside its cemetery. Families who once lived in Little Cataloochee return for yearly reunions to clean the grounds and decorate the graves. For a photo that shows the setting, put a few headstones in the foreground with the white church beyond them.

historychurchhikingcemetery

Wildlife

Wildlife in Great Smoky Mountains

All Great Smoky Mountains wildlife maps
Black Bear1,566 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapElk899 sightingsElkMost seen around 7 AMSighting mapBald Eagle13 sightingsBald EagleMost seen around 9 AMSighting mapTimber Rattlesnake142 sightingsTimber RattlesnakeMost seen around 6 PMSighting mapBobcat26 sightingsBobcatMost seen around 8 PMSighting mapRiver Otter42 sightingsRiver OtterMost seen around 7 AMSighting map

Sighting maps show where each species has been reported across Great Smoky Mountains. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.

Keep exploring

Near Little Cataloochee Baptist Church

See it all on the map

Trails nearby

ModerateLong Bunk Trail9.2 mi · 6 hr · 1 mi awayA long walk past a cemetery, homestead traces, and creek crossings.ModerateCaldwell Fork Trail6.3 mi · 4 hr · 2.3 mi awayCreekside miles past old farm traces and a school siteModerateBoogerman Loop Trail7.5 mi · 5 hr · 2.3 mi awayCreek crossings, giant old-growth trees, and mountain homestead tracesChallengingMount Sterling Trail5.4 mi · 4 hr · 2.5 mi awayA steep climb to a historic tower and wide clear-day Smokies views.ModeratePalmer Creek Trail9 mi · 6 hr · 2.7 mi awayA long creekside climb to the high mountain roadChallengingLittle Cataloochee Trail12.1 mi · 6.5 hr · 2.7 mi awayA long, rolling hike to cabins, a church, and mountain historyChallengingPretty Hollow Gap Trail10.9 mi · 7.5 hr · 2.7 mi awayFollow a creek into a steep climb toward the Smokies ridge.EasyCataloochee Horse Trail3.1 mi · 1.5 hr · 2.8 mi awayA creekside walk along the old road through Big Cataloochee.

More stops nearby

Sight · 1.9 mi awayJarvis Palmer HouseTwo log cabins under one roof became a Cataloochee homestead.Campground · 2.4 mi awayCataloochee CampgroundCamp in a remote valley of old homesteads and elk country.Sight · 2.7 mi awayPalmer ChapelA small valley church with a big role in Cataloochee's story.Sight · 2.8 mi awayBeech Grove SchoolA 1901 schoolhouse with a local story about fire.Sight · 3.2 mi awayCaldwell PlaceOld newspaper still lines the walls of this mountain home.Sight · 4.3 mi awaySteve Woody HouseA streamside walk ends at Cataloochee's historic farmstead.

Parkwolf’s Great Smoky Mountains ranking

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