Smoky Mountains Ramsey Cascades & Porters Creek

You are welcome to combine all or some of the  hikes held by Trish and Jeff with these - for a full week of hiking.  This is not a paid event.  All costs:  housing, food, transportation are paid by the members themselves.  Consider housing in the Gatlinburg, TN area - please make reservations early and look for a good cancellation policy in the event of bad weather.

We will be exploring the Greenbrier area of the park by hiking the Ramsey Cascades Trail to see the tallest waterfall in the Smokies and then hiking along the Porters Creek Trail.

Ramsey Cascades Trail
Ramsey Cascades is the tallest waterfall in the park and one of the most spectacular. Water drops 100 feet over rock outcroppings and collects in a small pool where numerous well-camouflaged salamanders can be found.

The trail to the waterfall gains over 2,000' in elevation over its 4 mile course and the 8-mile roundtrip hike is considered strenuous in difficulty. It follows rushing rivers and streams for much of its length. The last 2 miles pass through an old-growth cove hardwood forest with large tuliptrees, basswoods, silverbells, and yellow birches.

Porters Creek Trail
Most famous for its incredible spring wildflowers, we will hike about 2 miles (4 miles roundtrip) along the Porters Creek Trail to the 60 foot Fern Branch Falls passing beautiful displays of fringed phacelia, bishop's cap, trillium, violets, mayapple, blue cohosh, geranium, Fraser's sedge, toothworth, phlox, crested dwarf iris, and countless others.

Thanks to Laura Erich for the event.

Ramsey Cascades Trailhead

Located in the Greenbrier Area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  To get to the Greenbrier entrance to the park, take US-321 six miles east of Gatlinburg or 12 miles west of the Cosby Campground.  Then follow the signs to the Ramsey Cascades Trailhead.