Parking
Start at the Hyatt Ridge Trailhead on Straight Fork Road, near Hyatt Creek. This is a one-way route to Camp 44, so arrange your return or a verified onward connection before setting out.
Overview
About Hyatt Ridge Trail
Why go
- A rugged forest climb reaches McGee Spring and Camp 44
Heads up
- Steep climbing with repeated stream crossings
- Retracing the one-way trail makes an 8.8-mile day
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Great Smoky Mountains map
Full mapElevation3,045–5,108 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
7 active Great Smoky Mountains alerts
- ClosureStraight Fork and Heintooga Round Bottom roads closedMentions Straight Fork, referenced in this guideStraight Fork Road and the one-way section of Balsam Mountain Road (Heintooga Round Bottom Road) are closed.Official details
- 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
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Great Smoky Mountains Tour Guide
Your drive to Hyatt Ridge Trail, 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 trailhead
Hyatt Ridge Trailhead0:00 / 0:27
“You're approaching the Hyatt Ridge trailhead on Straight Fork Road, a starting point for a strenuous forest hike.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Great Smoky Mountains Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Margaret Stevenson's Mountain
- A Nursery Built One Pebble at a Time
- How Mountains Make Clouds
- The Jay’s Hidden Acorns
- 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 Hyatt Ridge Trail
A one-way climb to Camp 44Hyatt Ridge Trail is a 4.
Hyatt Ridge Trail is a 4.4-mile, one-way point-to-point hike from Straight Fork Road to McGee Spring and Backcountry Camp 44. It climbs about 2,200 feet through forest to a damp high-country basin. Allow roughly four hours to Camp 44; walking back the same way makes an approximately 8.8-mile day, so plan your return before starting. This is a strenuous climb, not a short summit stroll or a loop.
From Hyatt Creek to Low GapThe trail begins on an old rough jeep track beside Hyatt Creek, beneath second-growth yellow…
The trail begins on an old rough jeep track beside Hyatt Creek, beneath second-growth yellow poplar and sugar maple. After crossing Hyatt Creek at roughly mile one, the grade steepens. Stinging nettles can crowd the tread during the growing season. Around 1.8 miles from the road, you reach Low Gap, where Enloe Creek Trail branches off. Stay on Hyatt Ridge by turning right and climbing out of the gap. Several stream crossings are mostly easy rock hops, but they add time and require attention to footing.
Along the higher ridgePast Low Gap, the route alternates steeper climbs with shorter, easier ridge stretches, then…
Past Low Gap, the route alternates steeper climbs with shorter, easier ridge stretches, then drops into another gap before climbing toward Beech Gap and Hyatt Bald. Much of the upper trail stays in the woods. Hyatt Bald is mostly grassy and wooded, so do not expect a wide-open summit view. The last section descends into the basin at McGee Spring and Backcountry Camp 44.
The endpoint and returnCamp 44 is the maintained trail's endpoint.
Camp 44 is the maintained trail's endpoint. An older continuation toward Mount Yonaguska is no longer maintained, and there is no maintained path from camp to Big Pool. Overnight stays at Camp 44 require an advance backcountry permit and reservation. Dogs are not allowed on this trail. Longer Hyatt Ridge loop itineraries include Beech Gap or road segments; this route is only the named trail from Straight Fork Road to Camp 44.
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.
