Curtis Creek Hikes

This past weekend, we headed out to the Smokies for our annual Fall Foliage trip.  We left early Friday morning and headed west.  Originally, we were planning to head towards Max Patch for a hike, but the weather forecast was for rain and cloudy conditions.  Considering we wouldn’t see much fall color, we moved this hike to Sunday and headed to the Curtis Creek area of Pisgah National Forest near Old Fort.  Driving in on Curtis Creek Road, which becomes Forest Service Road 482, we parked at the Curtis Creek Campground.  After getting our stuff together, we started hiking the Hickory Branch Trail (#213).  The trail heads up then back down a ridge and then crosses Hickory Branch and follows it upstream.  Shortly before the waterfall, we got off the trail and followed a path to the creek and then upstream to the base.

A big tree had fallen at the base, so we had to climb over to get a good picture.  While we were here, a hunting dog came over and greeted us before running off.  We got a couple pictures here and then headed back to the trail.  I thought that there was an upper part of this waterfall, so we continued a short ways further on the trail.  We had pretty decent views of the main waterfall from the trail and soon we came to a small cascade above the falls.

The water level was rather low, but I think it would be really pretty in higher water flow.  After a picture or two, we started heading back to the car.  Although it was fall, there were some late-blooming wildflowers along Hickory Branch.

Back at the car, we drove back on FSR-482 about 0.1 miles and parked along the side of the road at the trailhead for Snooks Nose Trail (#211).  The trail starts off moderate, then gets quite steep as it heads up along Slick Falls Branch via switchbacks.  I think there is a waterfall along here, but the water level was so low, I didn’t think it would be worth the difficult bushwhack.  Past the waterfall, the trail passed a campsite and then got really steep as it continued up the mountain.  A couple much-needed rest breaks along the way gave me an opportunity to see some gentians blooming along the trail.

Finally, in just under 2 miles from the trailhead, we reached Snooks Nose.  A rocky outcrop provided nice views, but we were still a little low in elevation to see peak color.

From here, the trail regained some sanity as we continued up and up.  It was still steep, but not nearly so bad.  We found a rock outcrop just off the trail where we had some nice views looking up towards the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Another short climb took us up to near the peak of Laurel Knob, but there was nowhere to get to the actual summit from here and most views were partially obscured by trees and shrubs on the mountain.  Looking north, we could see the Black Mountains towering in the distance, the summits concealed by clouds.

It was starting to get late and we needed to continue west, so we started heading back.  The really steep part past Snooks Nose was probably even worse going down then going up, but finally we made it back to the car.

Driving back to I-40 and heading west, we stopped in Clyde for dinner at Blue Rooster.  There aren't a lot of options and this place was crowded, so there was a bit of a wait.  We saw a rainbow across the parking and lot and headed to Food Lion for lunch the following day while we waited.  When we finally got seated, it was worth the wait - the food and service were great.  After dinner, we drove into Tennessee.  Heading into Cosby Campground in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, we set up at Group Site 2 and enjoyed the campfire for a bit before going to bed.