20 Best Hiking Trails In Nc
Updated on: February 2023
Best Hiking Trails In Nc in 2023
Hiking North Carolina: A Guide to More Than 500 of North Carolina's Greatest Hiking Trails (State Hiking Guides Series)
Five-Star Trails: Asheville: 35 Spectacular Hikes in the Land of Sky
Hiking Waterfalls North Carolina: A Guide To The State's Best Waterfall Hikes
Hiking North Carolina's National Forests: 50 Can't-Miss Trail Adventures in the Pisgah, Nantahala, Uwharrie, and Croatan National Forests (Southern Gateways Guides)
Best Hikes Near Asheville, North Carolina (Best Hikes Near Series)
50 Hikes in South Carolina (Explorer's 50 Hikes)
Hiking Trails of North Georgia
Hiking Trails of the Smokies
Hiking Waterfalls in Georgia and South Carolina: A Guide To The States' Best Waterfall Hikes
- Hiking Waterfalls Ga & Sc
- Melissa Watson
- Southeast Hiking/Backpacking Guides
50 Hikes in the North Georgia Mountains (Third Edition) (Explorer's 50 Hikes)
50 Hikes in the North Georgia Mountains (Third Edition) (Explorer's 50 Hikes)
AMC's Best Day Hikes Near Washington, D.C.: Four-season Guide to 50 of the Best Trails in Maryland, Virginia, and the Nation's Capital
North Carolina Adventure Weekends: A Traveler's Guide to the Best Outdoor Getaways
Great Smoky Mountains National Park (National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map)
- Approximately 4 1/4" x 9 1/4" folded; 25.5" x 37.75" fully opened
- Scale = 1:70,000
- Map Revised - 2007
- Features Included: Great Smoky Mountains National Park in its entirety, the Appalachian Trail, Twentymile Trail, Lakeshore Trail, Chasteen Creek Trail, the Great Smoky Mountains, Chilowee Mountain, Little Mountain, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Cataloochee Divide, Pisgah National Forest, Cherokee National Forest, Nantahala National Forest, Little Tennessee River, Chilhowee Lake, Fontana Lake, Tuckasegee River, the cities of Maryville Tennessee, Gatlinburg Tennessee, Waynesville North Carolina, and mor
- Waterproof
60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Washington, D.C.: Including Suburban and Outlying Areas of Maryland and Virginia
Explorer's Guide 50 Hikes in Maryland: Walks, Hikes & Backpacks from the Allegheny Plateau to the Atlantic Ocean (Third Edition) (Explorer's 50 Hikes)
Hiking North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains
- Western North Carolinas Blue Ridge Mountains are some of the oldest on earth. The national and state parks, national forests, and many other public lands within them boast thousands of miles of designated hiking trails along pristine streams, old-gro
Explorer's Guide 50 Hikes in Central Florida (Second Edition) (Explorer's 50 Hikes)
Hiking Virginia: A Guide to the Area's Greatest Hiking Adventures (State Hiking Guides Series)
Explorer's Guide 50 Hikes in West Virginia: Walks, Hikes, and Backpacks from the Allegheny Mountains to the Ohio River (Second Edition) (Explorer's 50 Hikes)
Skeleton Gulch Trail in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado - The Best Hiking Trail in the Country
A personal favorite hiking trail of mine.
You took the rough five and half mile way from the Colorado River Trailhead or started from La Poudre and enjoyed the scenery from the gravel Ditch Road. You might have hitchhiked a ride in a green truck for the four miles. The guys that maintain the Ditch sometimes show mercy to backpackers. Whichever way you came was just the appetizer.
There is a short log bridge over Sawmill Creek. There will be wildflowers and different types of mushrooms all around you, color and size dependent on the time of year. I expect to a hobbit stick their head out from under a tree or a lacy winged sprite to flit by. Jays, juncos, ground squirrels and voles are more likely.
Watch the open meadow to the left for mule deer for a quarter mile of gently sloping dirt and rock trail. To the end of the mile the ascent gets steeper and you get surrounded by trees, lodgepole pine, blue spruce, and trembling aspen with small open meadows where deer and mountain sheep graze.
The trees give way to a rock slide area. Mount Richthofen on the north lets loose a slide every so often that keeps the area clear of trees and offers hiding places for marmots and ground squirrels to get away from the hungry hawks above.
Back in the trees the trail gets steep enough for some switchbacks. The trail levels out in a area of white gray granite and you see the sign for the Skeleton Gulch campsite. Keep going and step to the edge of a meadow two football fields long and one across. Four years running a moose we named Jack has been there. The nearly vertical slope of Mount Richthofen is a playground for mountain sheep. It is a fantastic view but you really need to follow the southern edge of the meadow and pick up the trail again.
The trail gets rockier and passes through a narrow meadow where old trees create deep shadows. Pass over a area of bare rock and through a band of pine trees that are hiding the real treat. An unparalleled vista. It is Skeleton Gulch surrounded by Lead and Teepee mountains and Mount Richthofen. Verdant grasses, brilliant wildflowers, clear Sawmill Creek fed by the melting snowfields. They don't call it the Never Summer Mountain Range for nothing. Trust me, the hike will be worth it.
