Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN · NC
A remote 5.3-mile traverse from Mount Sterling to Balsam Mountain Trail.
Overview
Map & elevation
Plan your hike
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Great Smoky Mountains Tour Guide
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
Mount Sterling Gap Trailhead“Mount Sterling Gap trailhead is ahead, the start of a steep forest hike to a historic fire tower. Allow around four hours for the five point four-mile round trip, with about two thousand feet of climbing.”
Plays on the road 1.6 mi from the trailhead in the Parkwolf Great Smoky Mountains Tour Guide.
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“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
Mount Sterling Ridge Trail is a remote, 5.3-mile one-way walk from the Mount Sterling Trail and Baxter Creek Trail junction to Balsam Mountain Trail. The native-surface path crosses high-elevation forest, dropping about 500 feet from its eastern junction before rolling; the last three miles are unusually flat for this elevation. Allow about three and a half hours for the mapped traverse. This is a backcountry through-route, not a 5.3-mile round trip.
Neither end has road parking. The eastern junction is about 2.3 hiking miles from Mount Sterling Gap via the separate Mount Sterling Trail; the pull-off at the Gap is very small. The western end joins Balsam Mountain Trail. To return to the east junction, retrace the full Ridge route, about 10.6 miles before the Gap approach. Horses share the trail, and pets are not allowed on park trails here. Treat this as part of a longer backcountry plan, not a quick add-on.
The Mount Sterling fire tower is about half a mile beyond the eastern junction on Baxter Creek Trail, so it is a side trip rather than the mapped Ridge Trail's endpoint. Count the extra walking both ways if you go. The 60-foot steel tower was built in 1935 by the Civilian Conservation Corps and now serves as a radio repeater. From the tower, forested ridges fall away in layers; that view is the payoff for the extra steps.
Wildlife
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.
Keep exploring
ChallengingMount Sterling Trail5.4 mi · 4 hr · 1.6 mi awayA steep climb to a historic tower and wide clear-day Smokies views.
ChallengingSwallow Fork Trail3.9 mi · 4 hr · 2.5 mi awayA forest climb links Big Creek to the high ridge routes.
ModerateLong Bunk Trail9.2 mi · 6 hr · 2.6 mi awayA long walk past a cemetery, homestead traces, and creek crossings.
ChallengingGunter Fork Trail4.1 mi · 4.5 hr · 3 mi awayTwo cascades reward a long, steep backcountry climb.
ChallengingBaxter Creek Trail12.2 mi · 9 hr · 3.8 mi awayA steep Big Creek climb to a 1935 summit fire tower.
ModerateBig Creek Trail to Mouse Creek Falls4 mi · 2.8 hr · 3.8 mi awayAn old railroad grade reaches an unmarked pool and 41-foot falls.
ChallengingCamel Gap Trail10.6 mi · 8.5 hr · 3.9 mi awayA long creekside approach to the Appalachian Trail at Camel Gap.
ChallengingChestnut Branch Trail2.1 mi · 2 hr · 4.4 mi awayA steep 2.1-mile climb from Big Creek to the Appalachian Trail.Sight · 2.5 mi awayMouse Creek FallsA 41-foot waterfall with Midnight Hole along the way.
Sight · 2.8 mi awayMidnight HoleA shaded Big Creek pool reached by a steep, rocky scramble.
Sight · 2.9 mi awayLittle Cataloochee Baptist ChurchAn 1889 chapel with its original 400-pound bell rewards the hike
Campground · 3.7 mi awayBig Creek CampgroundTwelve tent sites by the creek, with big hikes close at hand.
Picnic area · 3.8 mi awayBig Creek Picnic AreaBreak by Big Creek before setting out on a nearby trail.
Sight · 4.7 mi awayJarvis Palmer HouseTwo log cabins under one roof became a Cataloochee homestead.
Sight · 5 mi awayBeech Grove SchoolA 1901 schoolhouse with a local story about fire.
Sight · 5 mi awayPalmer ChapelA small valley church with a big role in Cataloochee's story.Parkwolf’s Great Smoky Mountains ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
