Now that it’s too cold to swim or go tubing in Deep Creek, that’s no reason to stay away. The area’s three sparkling waterfalls are a treat any time of the year, and you can see them all in an hour’s walk from the trailhead parking lot. Because they’re on the main trail, Tom Branch Falls and Indian Creek Falls are the most-visited. But if you follow the short quarter-mile uphill trail to Juneywhank Falls, you’ll be rewarded with a beautiful 80-foot cascade, a quiet out-of-the-way spot that has inspired numerous wedding proposals.

Deep Creek is one of the most accessible areas of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, just two miles north of Bryson City. For more information on these and other area waterfalls, visit the Bryson City online visitors guide, GreatSmokies.com. Download a printable PDF map of Deep Creek’s trails and waterfalls.

While their horses enjoy the cool water, these riders drink in the beauty of Fontana Lake and the surrounding Smoky Mountains. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has more than 800 miles of trails, and most are open to horseback riding. Water features — streams, cascades, waterfalls — are plentiful, including the massive Fontana Lake with its more than 240 miles of shoreline.

You’ll find more information about trails, Fontana Lake and horseback riding in the Smokies at the Bryson City area online travel guide.

Photo courtesy of James Clark, Deep Creek Boarding Stables

Chip Penlan, a hiker from Memphis, stops to admire the view from the heights of the Appalachian Trail. In March, he and fellow hiker Tyler Stanley trekked over 50 miles from Deep Gap, at the GA-NC state line, to the Nantahala Outdoor Center. While some dedicated “thru hikers” attempt to cover all 2181 miles of the AT in the same year, Chip and Tyler are like most, chipping away at the trail in more manageable segments over time.

Stretching from Springer Mountain in North Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine, the trail passes through 14 states. North Carolina has 88 miles of AT not counting the more than 200 miles that follows along the Tennessee border. The trail runs for more than 71 miles through Great Smoky Mountains National Park, entering from the south at Fontana Dam and exiting in the north at Davenport Gap. The highest point anywhere along the trail is at Clingmans Dome (6625 ft.). The trail also passes by other notable landmarks in the Smoky Mountains such as Charlies Bunion, Rocky Top and the historic stone fire tower atop Mt. Cammerer.

Most people usually take seven days to hike the Smoky Mountains section. But it can be broken into two 3 to 4-day segments at the Newfound Gap or Clingmans Dome midpoint.

The AT is maintained by thirty different trail clubs and multiple partnerships. And it’s managed by the National Park Service and the nonprofit Appalachian Trail Conservancy. The majority of the trail is in wilderness, although some portions do cross towns, roads and rivers.

Photo by Tyler Stanley

Just below the third bridge on the Deep Creek Trail, little Hammer Branch bursts out of the thick Rhododendrons and tumbles into Deep Creek. Writer and Deep Creek historian Jim Casada tells us that this spot was once the home of Sam Hunnicutt, a legendary mountain sportsman and author of the extremely rare book, Twenty Years Hunting & Fishing in the Great Smokies. Casada added “You can still see the yellow bells (forsythia) blooming there about this time of year. Old Sam was a mighty bear hunter. He always wore high boots, thanks to having been snake bitten at some point in his life.”

Click here for a PDF map of Deep Creek’s trails and waterfalls.

A Saturday walk along the Deep Creek trail revealed an indisputable sign that Spring has arrived in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park — a small cluster of Hepatica on a rocky ledge. Home to more than 1500 species of native plants, the Smokies provides an ever changing display of flowering plants throughout the Spring and Summer.

To learn more about Deep Creek and wildflowers in the Smokies, follow these links —

Hiking in the Bryson City area
Deep Creek’s trails and waterfalls (pdf)
Wildflower blooming calendar (pdf)