Parking
Use the roadside pullout where the trail meets Balsam Mountain Road; it has room for only a couple of vehicles. The road is one-way gravel and seasonal, so check its access before driving.
Overview
About Spruce Mountain Trail
Why go
- A mossy clearing under red spruce at the turnaround
Heads up
- About 700 feet of climbing over a short trail
- Remote, one-way seasonal gravel-road access
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Great Smoky Mountains map
Full mapElevation4,701–5,522 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 Spruce Mountain 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 Magnolia with Ears0:00 / 0:26
“If a woodland tree has enormous leaves clustered at the ends of its branches, check the base of a leaf. On Fraser magnolia, two small lobes stick out where the blade meets the stalk, looking like a pair of ears.”
Plays on the road 0.3 mi from the trailhead in the Parkwolf Great Smoky Mountains Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- A Beak Built for Pinecones
- A Tiny Frog with a Big Voice
- The Jay’s Hidden Acorns
- How Mountains Make Clouds
- 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 Spruce Mountain Trail
A quiet backcountry out-and-backSpruce Mountain Trail is a 2.3-mile out-and-back from Balsam Mountain Road to Campsite 42.
Spruce Mountain Trail is a 2.3-mile out-and-back from Balsam Mountain Road to Campsite 42. The mapped path is about 1.14 miles each way; allow 1½–2 hours for roughly 700 feet of climbing. The turnaround is a small backcountry clearing rather than a summit viewpoint. Balsam Mountain Road is one-way gravel with seasonal access, so check road access before driving. A parking tag is required for stops longer than 15 minutes.
Climbing into red spruceThe natural-surface trail climbs from the road through dense woods.
The natural-surface trail climbs from the road through dense woods. The lower stretch begins among nettles and pines; after about three-quarters of a mile, red spruce become more prominent. Retrace the same tread on the return.
The clearing at Campsite 42The path ends at a sparse clearing surrounded by spruce, with moss across the ground and Bear…
The path ends at a sparse clearing surrounded by spruce, with moss across the ground and Bear Branch nearby. There is no dependable water refill confirmed along the route, so carry what you need. Dogs are prohibited on this trail.
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.
