Parking
Start at the Little Greenbrier Trailhead on Wear Cove Gap Road, at the park boundary. Roadside parking is very limited, with space for roughly two cars. A parking tag is required for stays longer than 15 minutes.
Overview
About Little Greenbrier Trail
Why go
- Fairly level first 1.9 miles through woodland
- A through route linking two named trail corridors
Heads up
- The final 2.4 miles climb steeply
- The far end is a junction, so return transport takes planning
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Great Smoky Mountains map
Full mapElevation1,919–3,694 ft
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
7 active Great Smoky Mountains alerts
- ClosureLaurel Falls and Sugarlands Mountain trails closedMentions Laurel Falls, referenced in this guideLaurel Falls Trail and the Fighting Creek Gap Road section of Sugarlands Mountain Trail are closed during trail rehabilitation; choose another route or waterfall.Official details
- ClosureHurricane Helene trail damage and backcountry restrictionsHurricane Helene damage has restricted backcountry trail access; avoid damaged crossings and observe trail-specific limits.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Great Smoky Mountains Tour Guide
Your drive to Little Greenbrier 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 area
The Flakes That Make a Rock Sparkle0:00 / 0:32
“Some of the shimmer in mountain rocks comes from mica, a family of minerals that splits into extremely thin sheets. Muscovite is usually silvery or clear, while fresh biotite is black and shiny.”
Plays near this trailhead in the Parkwolf Great Smoky Mountains Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Little Greenbrier School and Walker Sisters Place
- Metcalf Bottoms Picnic Area
- A Bat Beneath the Leaves
- The Sinks
- 200 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, 137 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 Little Greenbrier Trail
What the walk isLittle Greenbrier Trail is a 4.
Little Greenbrier Trail is a 4.3-mile point-to-point hike from Wear Cove Gap Road to a junction with Laurel Falls Trail. The first 1.9 miles are fairly level through the woods; after Little Brier Gap, the final 2.4 miles climb steeply. Expect about 1,900 feet of climbing and roughly 3 to 4 hours to reach the far junction. It is a long forest route with a serious uphill finish, not a loop and not the waterfall trail itself.
The Little Brier Gap junctionStay on Little Greenbrier Trail where the separate Little Brier Gap Trail branches off.
Stay on Little Greenbrier Trail where the separate Little Brier Gap Trail branches off. That route leads toward the Walker Sisters homesite and schoolhouse area from another access; they are not stops on this through route. Little Greenbrier continues uphill to meet Laurel Falls Trail. The waterfall is farther along that different trail.
Plan the return before you startWear Cove Gap Road is the starting access; the far end is a trail junction, not a road.
Wear Cove Gap Road is the starting access; the far end is a trail junction, not a road. Arrange a confirmed pickup using a legal route, or retrace the same corridor for an 8.6-mile round trip that can take most of a day. The start has only a small roadside pull-in. A parking tag is required if you park longer than 15 minutes, and pets are not allowed on this trail.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Great Smoky Mountains
1,569 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
900 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.
