Parking
Roadside pull-off on Little River Road, about 0.8 mile beyond Sugarlands Visitor Center. A parking tag is required for vehicles parked longer than 15 minutes; pull-off capacity and facilities were not found.
Overview
About Big White Oak Quiet Walkway
Why go
- A long Fighting Creek footbridge and several Spring Branch crossings on a very short walk.
Heads up
- The access spur is retraced between the circuit and the road.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Great Smoky Mountains map
Full mapElevation1,541–1,613 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
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
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Great Smoky Mountains Tour Guide
Your drive to Big White Oak Quiet Walkway, 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.
See the Great Smoky Mountains audio tourRecorded for this area
A Bear Den Above the Ground0:00 / 0:30
“In the Smokies, a standing hollow tree can be a black bear's winter den, high above the ground. Pregnant females give birth inside their dens, usually in late January or early February.”
Plays on the road 0.7 mi from the trailhead in the Parkwolf Great Smoky Mountains Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Sugarlands Visitor Center
- Sugarlands Valley Nature Trail
- Sugarlands Riding Stables
- Maloney Point
- 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
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Big White Oak Quiet Walkway
The short versionBig White Oak Quiet Walkway is a lollipop-shaped 0.
Big White Oak Quiet Walkway is a lollipop-shaped 0.65-mile loop off Little River Road, with a shared access spur that you walk twice. Plan on about 30 minutes for an easy, mostly low-gradient woodland stroll. Its reward is close-up time beside Fighting Creek and Spring Branch, not a summit or a big viewpoint.
Follow the circuitFrom the roadside pull-off, the path drops through a ditch and crosses Fighting Creek on a long…
From the roadside pull-off, the path drops through a ditch and crosses Fighting Creek on a long footbridge. Turn left around the foothill; the tread then stays near Spring Branch, crossing it four times. One stretch follows the small creek into the woods, turns sharply right across the branch and a ditch, then skirts another low slope. The return passes tall, thin tulip poplars and thick rhododendron by the water before it rejoins the junction. Retrace the access spur to finish at the road.
Access and expectationsThe pull-off is about 0.8 mile beyond Sugarlands Visitor Center on Little River Road.
The pull-off is about 0.8 mile beyond Sugarlands Visitor Center on Little River Road. A parking tag is required if your vehicle is parked for more than 15 minutes; the pull-off’s capacity and facilities aren’t documented. Dogs aren’t allowed on this trail. Expect a natural woodland path and repeated creek crossings rather than a surfaced, dry walkway.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Great Smoky Mountains
1,566 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
899 sightingsElkMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
13 sightingsBald EagleMost seen around 9 AMSighting map
142 sightingsTimber RattlesnakeMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
26 sightingsBobcatMost seen around 8 PMSighting map
42 sightingsRiver OtterMost seen around 7 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Great Smoky Mountains. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
