Cataloochee: Car Camp and Day Hike

New Miles Hiked: 25.0
Total Miles Hiked: 28.7
5-6 July 2023

Trails hiked Day 1

- Cataloochee Divide (complete)

- McKee Branch (complete)

- Big Fork Ridge (complete)

Trails hiked Day 2

- Caldwell Fork (complete)

- Boogerman (complete)

- Rough Fork (partial)

July 5 trails in red; July 6 trails in blue

I used Liz Etnier's book to figure out how to approach the trails in Cataloochee Valley most efficiently. My wife Sarah and I took a few days to camp at the Cataloochee campground, and I couldn't have done these trails without her! On our first day, she dropped me at the trailhead for Cataloochee Divide on our way in to the campground, and then picked me up at the end of the road at the Rough Fork trailhead. On the second day she hiked the Boogerman Loop with me, and then went back to the campground while I finished the rest of the trails, and then picked me up at the end of the road again. It was incredibly restful to get to camp and chill in between these big hiking days, and wonderful to spend the time in the woods with Sarah.

Day 1

The trailhead for Cataloochee Divide trail is on Cove Creek Road, right at the park boundary as you enter the Cataloochee Valley. Sarah dropped me off here as we were driving in, and then she went on to the campground. This may well be one of my new favorite trails! It was a botanical bonanza, especially along the first couple miles. Rhododendrons and Flame Azaleas were flowering, and there were even a few Mountain Laurels still hanging on! Lots of wildflowers as well: bee balm, fire pink, spiderwort, pale jewel weed... Really beautiful! High elevation trails during the summer are really special.

Trailhead selfie

Cataloochee Divide trail leading away from the trailhead

Flame azalea, spiderwort, bee balm, pale jewel weed

Cataloochee Divide trail follows the southeastern border of the park almost exactly. There is an old split-rail fence that follows the border - apparently built by the CCC in the early days of the park to keep cattle from wandering in to the park. As a consequence of this proximity to the border, there are houses and resorts just on the other side of the trail at many spots along the way. Dirt / gravel roads are present on the other side of the fence in several spots, there are a couple of houses that abut right up to the border, and most notably there is a large resort called "The Swag" that owns a large section of property just outside the park.

House *just* outside the park boundary

Chicken of the Woods fungus (I think)

Chestnut stump sprout

You can find a lot of old chestnut trees fallen in the woods here, many of which are barely decayed despite having been dead for 100+ years. And there are a lot of chestnut stump sprouts, some of which are up to 15 feet high or so, and a few inches in diameter. Chestnuts were a primary component of the forest here in the southern Appalachians until the blight in the early 1900s killed them all off. A huge loss both ecologically, and for humans and wildlife that used the chestnut for a lot of different things.

View to the south from Cataloochee Divide

Most of Cataloochee Divide trail is in the trees, so there are not a lot of great vistas, but occasionally you get a view to the south. It was a cloudy day, and the clouds were hanging in the valleys around the tops of the mountains.

Cataloochee Divide trail

It's a dreamy trail: mostly gentle elevation changes, soft organic soils, not a lot of rocks or roots, very easy to follow. I really, really like this trail...

Skull cap, ghost plant, sun drop, whorled loosestrife

Cataloochee Divide trail with split rail fence

Rustic shelter at "Taylor's Turnaround" - part of the Swag

NPS boundary marker

Fly poison, purple fringed orchid, fire pink, mountain laurel

NPS research station at Purchase Knob

As you approach Purchase Gap there are some side trails to the east (left if you are coming from Cove Creek Road) that lead down toward the Purchase Gap Appalachian Science Center. I have a friend who used to use this as a home base when she was doing citizen science work in the park for Discover Life in America, and she loves it - so it was neat to see it in person. (and I can totally see why she loves it - what a view!)

Side trail to Purchase Knob Science Center

Cataloochee Divide trail near Purchase Gap

Trail junction of Cataloochee Divide and McKee Branch trails at Purchase Gap

At Purchase Gap there is a 4-way intersection: Cataloochee Divide trail runs northeast to southwest, McKee Branch trail runs west down into Cataloochee Valley (I would come back to this in a bit), and a short side trail leads east to the Ferguson Cabin. I decided to take the 1/2 mile hike down to the Ferguson Cabin for a lunch break.

Side trail to the Ferguson Cabin

Inside the Ferguson Cabin

Ferguson Cabin

After lunch I hiked back up the Cataloochee Divide trail, and turned left (southwest) toward Double Gap. This is the only part of my day that I would be backtracking: from Purchase Gap up to Double Gap, and then back down to Purchase Gap. This 1.8 mile section has some elevation gain and loss, and also passes directly by The Swag.

Cataloochee Divide trail southwest of Purchase Gap with boardwalk

Small cabin and picnic table / bench just outside the park on the Swag

Event site / cabin of the Swag

Trail junction at Double Gap: Cataloochee Divide & Hemphill Bald trails

trail leading up to Hemphill Bald from Double Gap

After reaching Double Gap and the trail junction with Hemphill Bald, I turned around and headed back down to Purchase Gap where I hit the McKee Branch trail down (and I mean DOWN) into Cataloochee Valley.

McKee Branch trail has joined the list of trails that I hope NEVER, EVER to hike again...

First, it's very steep: it drops about 1800' in 2.3 miles.

Second, it's an absolutely HORRIBLE trail. It is deeply rutted (like up to a couple of feet deep in places), terribly rocky (because it's so deeply rutted - all the topsoil has been eroded away) and horses have absolutely destroyed it. The trail is either complete muck (in the slightly less steep sections where there is some topsoil left) or stripped down to bare slick clay & rocks (in the steeper sections). There are no views, or other interesting sights to distract from the misery. In short, it was terrible. Enough said. It got me where I needed to be. Apparently it used to be an important trail linking the Cataloochee Valley with the outside world. Now I suspect it's used mostly by folks from the outside world coming in to the valley (apparently especially folks on horseback).

McKee Branch trail... ugh.

McKee Branch trail... ugh.

McKee Branch trail... ugh.

Scarlet Bee Balm

The one redeeming bit on McKee Branch trail: there was a nice patch of Scarlet Bee Balm in the lower section. Such an absolutely lovely flower and an amazing shade of red!

McKee Branch - Caldwell Fork trail junction at the bottom of McKee Branch

Big Fork Ridge - Caldwell Fork trail junction

McKee Branch trail ends at Caldwell Fork trail, and the trail junction for Big Fork Ridge trail is just 0.1 miles north on Caldwell Fork. I was happy to be off of McKee Branch as I approached Big Fork Ridge.

There is a nice trail bridge over Caldwell Fork near the beginning of Big Fork Ridge trail. The trail is 3.2 miles long from Caldwell Fork trail over to the trailhead on Rough Fork Road in Cataloochee Valley. Over that 3.2 miles the trail climbs about 600' in elevation up to the top of Big Fork Ridge, and then down about 800' to the road. While it was not quite as bad as McKee Branch, this trail too was highly disturbed by horse traffic. Much of the trail was deeply churned up wet muck which is really hard to slog through (especially near the end of a 13 mile day...).

Big Fork Ridge trail bridge

Big Fork Ridge trail

Big Fork Ridge trail - ugh

Big Fork Ridge trail - all churned up

View from near the top of the ridge on Big Fork Ridge trail

Approaching the Cataloochee Valley on Big Fork Ridge

Trail bridge over Rough Fork at the end of Big Fork Ridge trail

Toward the bottom, as it approaches the road, the trail flattens out a bit and gets wider and rockier. I met a couple of women in this section who were both backpacking barefoot! Apparently one of them had lost a shoe in one of the Caldwell Fork trail stream crossings and so had to hike barefoot. The other woman was doing it too in unity with the first woman. Phew. Luckily they were almost back to the road. This is a terrible trail to hike barefoot - it's either solid muck or straight up rocks... (as an aside, they were the only other hikers I saw all day long!)

Phew - done for day 1!

Made it to the road where Sarah picked me up. I was a little later than I had expected, so she was starting to get a little worried that I hadn't shown up yet. I underestimated the difficulty of these trails, specifically because of the terrible trail conditions on McKee Branch and Big Fork Ridge.

As we drove back to the campground we passed a group of elk grazing in the fields. What majestic animals! So neat to see them, and we are so lucky to have them back in the park. What a great re-introduction success story! You can read more about the elk in Cataloochee here.

Back at the campground we had a dinner of ribeyes and baked potatoes and a cold beer. Tough day on the trail, but always good to be in the park.

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Day 2

Got up early, had coffee & breakfast, and got ready to hit the trail. The trailhead for the Caldwell Fork trail is just up the road from the campground, and we were on trail by 8:30 am.

The first order of business was the "Boogerman Loop" - this entails hiking up Caldwell Fork trail for about 2.7 miles, turning left onto Boogerman trail, and following it back to Caldwell Fork trail at mile 0.8 from the campground.

The thing about Caldwell Fork is that it has a bunch of unbridged stream crossings, that cannot be rock-hopped - they are anywhere from shin-deep to knee-deep on me (I'm 6' 1" tall). Turns out that none of them were any problem, and were actually kind of refreshing since it was a hot day! Also, it had just rained the previous day, and it's been a rainy start to the summer, so I expect the water level was slightly higher than typical.

Caldwell Fork trail advisory

Caldwell Fork trailhead selfie

First bridge over Caldwell Fork - right at the trailhead

First part of the trail starts with a couple of bridged crossings. The trail follows the creek pretty closely, and Caldwell Fork is a really beautiful mountain stream. I think stream-side hikes are especially wonderful this time of year when the Rhododendrons are flowering. They love the stream banks and are just lovely.

Caldwell Fork is a beautiful creek!

Sarah on one of the few bridges on Caldwell Fork trail

First junction between Caldwell Fork and Boogerman trail

0.8 miles up the trail you arrive at the first trail junction with the Boogerman trail. We passed this by as this is where we would come out after doing Caldwell Fork / Boogerman loop in a counter-clockwise direction. We did it this way because the elevation gain on Boogerman is about 700' going this way, vs. 1000' if you go up the other way. Of course, it all comes out the same in the end  since it's a loop, but the section on Boogerman is steeper so it saved us some steep climbing.

Trail alongside Caldwell Fork

Caldwell Fork stream crossing

The stream crossings were not difficult. We did not stop to change shoes (neither of us brought water shoes - we planned to just wade through), which saves a lot of time. I really don't mind hiking in wet shoes, especially when I know I'm going back to camp at the end of the day when I can put on dry socks & shoes!

Caldwell Fork bridge

Muck... dang horses.

Much of Caldwell Fork is on the bank just above the creek, and it's often rocky. But there are also many sections that are more earthy, and these were pretty chewed up by the horses. Very, very mucky and unpleasant to walk through.

REALLY big blow-down

Part way up this section is a really big blow down. The tree was probably 4 feet in diameter and completely blocked the trail. We had to climb down the bank a little just to find a spot where we could climb up! There is a "NO HORSES" sign at the creek right before this - I guess horses have to wade up the creek to bypass this blowdown.

Caldwell Fork trail

Rosebay Rhododendron was in flower all over the place

Selfie mid-stream

Caldwell Fork trail

Caldwell Fork stream crossing

Second junction between Caldwell Fork and Boogerman trails

At mile 2.7 we reached the second junction with Boogerman trail. This time we turned left (east) onto Boogerman to complete the loop. Boogerman trail climbs up one side of a ridge, wanders a bit at the top of the ridge, and drops back down to Caldwell Fork. There is a big difference in the trail conditions - horses are not allowed on Boogerman trail. Although clearly some horse folks don't realize this or are just ignoring this, since there were piles of horse poop and occasional horseshoe prints in the dirt. But it's not nearly as chewed up as the other trails in the area.

The Little Brown Book tells the story of how local resident Robert Palmer got the name "Boogerman" after  whom the trail is named. My favorite part of this trail is the fact that it wasn't logged (Palmer owned the land and wouldn't sell to logging companies) so there are a lot of big, beautiful trees in the area. The tulip poplars and hemlocks are especially impressive. Thanks Boogerman, for saving those trees!

Boogerman trail - going up

One of three really well-preserved rock walls on Boogerman trail

On the south side of the ridge there are three rock walls that are still in really good shape. Clearly this area was settled and farmed and the local residents really knew how to build a rock wall that would last. 

Sarah in a hollow Tulip Poplar

Still going up...

Big trees on Boogerman trail

Come down the other side of Boogerman - through Hemlock groves

Back to the first Caldwell Fork - Boogerman trail junction

After traversing the ridge the trail descends back to Caldwell Fork where we completed the loop. From here, Sarah turned right to head back to the campground for an afternoon of reading and writing, while I turned left to retrace the 1.9 miles of Caldwell Fork we had already done, and then further on and further up.

Garter Snake

Caldwell Fork - Big Fork Ridge trail junction

Just about a half-mile above the Caldwell Fork - Boogerman junction are the junctions of Caldwell Fork and Big Fork Ridge trail and then McKee Branch trail. From here on up the Caldwell Fork trail starts to gain more elevation more steeply. It also continues to be really churned up by horse traffic, so the trail is mucky and soft. Difficult walking.

Caldwell Fork trail - all churned up

Caldwell Fork trail - muck, mire, mess...

About 4.6 miles from the road the Caldwell Fork trail junctions with the Hemphill Bald trail that is coming in from the left (southwest). There is a kind of 3-way "traffic circle" here with a pile of rocks in the middle.

Caldwell Fork - Hemphill Bald trail junction

Almost immediately after the Caldwell Fork - Hemphill Bald junction there is a bridge over the Caldwell Fork, and then backcountry campsite #41.

Bridge over Caldwell fork between Hemphill Bald trail & Campsite #41

Backcountry campsite #41 (Caldwell Fork)

Backcountry campsite #41 (Caldwell Fork)

Campsite #41 has fire rings & tent sites on both sides of the trail. I stopped for a bit for a snack and a drink and it was SUPER buggy while I was sitting there. Not a whole lot to recommend about this campsite, other than the fact that there are not many campsites in the area.

Side trail to the "Big Poplars"

Big Poplar - backpack for size reference

Continuing up the Caldwell Fork trail I was surprised to see a side trail with a sign to the "Big Poplars". I guess I hadn't read the Little Brown Book section on this trail closely, but I didn't realize this was here. I only found one big poplar, but it was really big. Sadly, this area around the big tree was also very mucky and muddy from horse traffic.

Climbing UP Caldwell Fork trail

Bear print in the mud

Continuing up Caldwell Fork it climbs through a nice forest, tracing the side of the ridge up toward Rough Fork trail. Somewhere in here I scared up a bear - I heard it rustling up above me and then saw it when I came around a bend. It looked back at me and huffed a couple of times, and then turned up the trail away from me. I heard it crashing through the underbrush so I felt confident it had left the trail, but I called out "hey bear!" a bunch of times just to make sure it knew where I was. Found the paw print in the mud as I moved up the trail.

Caldwell Fork - Rough Fork trail junction

Ultimately, the Caldwell Fork trail ends at its junction with Rough Fork trail on the side of Little Ridge. Reaching the ridge top means the trail changes character. It went from forest walking with wet, earthy trail, to ridge top/side walking on a dry, sandy trail. The effect is obvious immediately: the trail that had been churned up by horse traffic is now dry, sandy, and packed even footing. Sure - there were some sections of Rough Fork trail that were churned up by horses, but it was nothing compared to the constant quagmire of the upper parts of Caldwell Fork trail.

From this junction to the road in Cataloochee is all down hill. The trail drops about 1200' in elevation from the Caldwell Fork junction to the road, over 2.9 miles.

Rough Fork trail - heading down

Backcountry campsite #40 (Big Hemlock)

Backcountry campsite #40 (Big Hemlock)

Along the way you pass backcountry campsite #40. This is in the lower section of Rough Fork trail, just about 1.5 miles from the road. This is a small, compact campsite with a central fire ring and several small tent sites close by. It's right on a creek, so there is a good water supply, but if felt a little suffocating in the heat and humidity. But, not nearly as buggy as campsite #41 was.

From here on down the trail levels out and opens up. More like an old road (I suspect it probably was) than a trail. 

Lower section of Rough Fork trail

About a mile from the road you come to the Woody Place - an old homesite that has been well preserved by the park service. There is a spring house, and a main house, both of which are frame built, not log-cabins. The house has front and back porches, and an upper story. Looks like a lovely place to have lived!

Spring house at the Woody Place

The Woody Place

Last couple of bridges over Rough Fork creek

Rough Fork trail as it approaches the road / trailhead

Done!

The last little bit of Rough Fork trail is wide, flat, and easy! I cruised in to the parking area to meet Sarah right on time for pickup and back to the campsite for a dinner of hot dogs roasted over the fire.

This trip was a bit of a series of conflicts for me. We've been in Cataloochee before and have loved the solitude of this part of the park, the elk, the history... But I was deeply saddened by the condition of the trails that are horse/hiker trails. I don't think I can express just how terrible they were to hike on - I found myself shouting obscenities into the forest because of the trail conditions. It was terribly frustrating. I just don't understand how the NPS can continue to condone the use of these trails by horses when they are doing such damage. This is something I will continue to research and try to understand. But if you are headed this way, be prepared.

I am nearly complete in my quest now. I've got one more route in Cataloochee to complete (the Hemphill Bald - Caldwell Fork - Rough Fork loop), and then the Boulevard trail to complete. Happy to be nearing the end of this journey, and contemplating others going forward.

Til next time, happy hiking.