Parking
Use Ogle Place Parking on Cherokee Orchard Road, before the one-way Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. The cabin and loop are a short walk from the lot.
Overview
About Noah “Bud” Ogle Place Nature Trail
Why go
- Cabin, tub mill and barn make a memorable short walk.
Heads up
- The rocky mill-to-barn stretch can be slick and harder to follow when wet.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Great Smoky Mountains map
Full mapElevation2,277–2,372 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 Noah “Bud” Ogle Place Nature 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
Noah Bud Ogle Place0:00 / 0:33
“Up ahead is Noah Bud Ogle Place, a mountain farmstead with a cabin, barn, and creek-powered mill. Start at the cabin and look at its unusual layout: two log sections share one central chimney.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Great Smoky Mountains Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Rainbow Falls Trailhead
- The Cicada's Sound Panels
- Baskins Creek Falls Trailhead
- Grotto Falls from Trillium Gap
- 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 Noah “Bud” Ogle Place Nature Trail
A short farmstead loopNoah “Bud” Ogle Place Nature Trail is a 0.
Noah “Bud” Ogle Place Nature Trail is a 0.8-mile loop, counting the short connector from Ogle Place Parking and back. Allow about 45 minutes to walk it and look around. The cabin is only a few steps from the lot; the route then crosses former farm fields and two small brooks before circling the mill and barn. Most of the walk is gentle, but the mill-to-barn side is rockier and can be harder to follow when wet. At the Twin Creeks junction, stay on the Ogle loop rather than turning onto the much longer Twin Creeks Trail. Pets are not allowed on this trail; service animals are permitted.
The farm buildingsThe cabin, tub mill and barn are the walk’s main reward.
The cabin, tub mill and barn are the walk’s main reward. The cabin has a saddlebag layout, with two rooms joined by a shared chimney. Farther around, the tub mill was powered by water from LeConte Creek through a wooden flume, and the drove-through barn has a central passage between its log pens. Take a moment at each building rather than rushing the loop.
The rougher side of the loopAfter the cabin, the path crosses small brooks and former fields.
After the cabin, the path crosses small brooks and former fields. The mill-to-barn stretch has uneven rocks and boulders, and its tread is less obvious than the start; it can be slick after rain. For a photo, step back enough to fit the whole cabin and its shared chimney against the surrounding hardwoods. This is a farmstead walk, not a viewpoint hike.
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.
