sweetwilder

November 11, 2015

At the southern end of the Smokey’s; Deep Creek is a wonderful place for family day-hiking filled with meandering trails, easy grades, chartreuse pools in the creek, fallen orange leaves on the forest floor and tall waterfalls.

Emily, Ramona, Alice and I enjoyed a hike on the Deep Creek Loop. We started at the trailhead near Juney Whank Falls and went up Deep Creek for 2 miles. The trail here is very wide and very level. Prior to the hike, we had anticipated that since it was Veteran’s Day and November and almost 70 degrees, that the trail would be inundated with hikers. Alas, there was hardly a person on the trail, which was nice as we had this area to ourselves.

From Deep Creek Trail we went northeast on Loop Trail for 1 mile. The Loop trail is arduous for ½ mile as it goes up the ridge. It was somewhat more steeply inclined than I had anticipated, but once we passed the trail for Sunkota Ridge, it was all downhill for .6 miles. I love the feeling of ascending a ridge, the boisterous noise of the creek dissipates and is replaced with the gentle quiet of a forest. At the end of the Loop Trail we went south on the Indian Creek Trail for less than a mile, with the highlight of Indian Creek Falls at the end. We returned on Deep Creek Trail to the car.

This was little Alice’s first hike, and it was extremely good.

Total mileage is 4.5 miles.