Huskey Gap (via Little River Trail)
| Trail Features: | Stream, Wildflowers, History |  |
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| Trail Location: | Elkmont | ||||
| Roundtrip Length: | 10.0 Miles | ||||
| Total Elevation Gain: | 1080 Feet | ||||
| Avg. Elev Gain / Mile: | 216 Feet | ||||
| Highest Elevation: | 3206 Feet | ||||
| Trail Difficulty Rating: | 12.16 (strenuous) | ||||
| Parking Lot Latitude | 35.65365 | ||||
| Parking Lot Longitude | -83.58018 | ||||
Directions to Trailhead:
From the Sugarlands Visitor Center near Gatlinburg, drive 4.9 miles on Little River Road to the Elkmont Campground turnoff on your left. After turning into Elkmont, drive 1.4 miles until you reach the campground. Instead of proceeding into the campground, you will need to turn left to reach the parking area for the Little River Trail. The parking lot for the Little River Trail will be 0.6 miles from the campground. The Huskey Gap Trail is accessed via the Little River Trail.
From the Townsend "Y" intersection near Cades Cove, the turnoff for the Elkmont Campground will be 12.6 miles away.
Trail Description:
To reach Huskey Gap from this hike, you'll first need to hike almost 3 miles up the Little River Trail. The Little River Trail is a gentle climb along an old gravel road that parallels the river with the same name. The Little River is a beautiful cascading stream with large boulders and several small waterfalls.
At the beginning of the trail you'll pass by a few of the
old resort cottages of Elkmont. The cottages were built in the 1920s, and were
used as summer homes by the affluent from Knoxville. As of this writing the
homes are in disrepair and are off limits to the public. However, in the fall
of 2008, National Park crews completed emergency stabilization to 18 of the
historic cabins, as well as the Appalachian Clubhouse. The park plans to fully
restore all 19 structures so that they can be opened and viewed by the public.
As part of the first phase of the Elkmont restoration project, the Park Service
reopened the old Appalachian Clubhouse for public day use rental in June of
2011.
At this time there is no indication when this project will be completed. Additionally, the park plans on removing the other 55 buildings in the area and returning those sites to their natural habitats.
The Elkmont area of the park was heavily logged from the
1800s up until 1938. In the early years logs were hauled out by ox teams and
then floated down river. Just after the turn of the century the Little River
Lumber Company purchased nearly 100,000 acres of timberland along the Little
River and its tributaries. They built rail lines to Elkmont, and eventually, a
spur that extended all the way to Clingmans Dome. This spur would eventually
become the Little River Trail. The rail lines allowed the company to extract
timber at a much faster rate. After the Smokies became a national park, the
lumber company ceased operations in 1938, and had rolled up its tracks by early
1940.
Along the early portions of the Little River Trail you'll
stroll past several patches of rhododendron. As we proceeded up river we
noticed yellow trillium, dwarf cinquefoil, stonecrop and other
wildflowers.
If you're lucky, you may spot an otter in or near the water. Between 1988 and 1990 park biologists released 14 river otters in the Little River as part of a successful effort to reintroduce the species throughout the Smokies.
At roughly 2.2 miles you'll reach Huskey Branch Falls, a small 20-foot cascade that tumbles into the Little River. The waterfall flows down the slope of the hill next to the trail before running underneath a footbridge.
At just under 2.5 miles you'll reach the Cucumber Gap Trail Junction. To reach the Huskey Gap Trail junction, continue on for another 0.4 mile, just past the old bridge that crosses over the Little River. Turn left onto the Huskey Gap Trail.
Once beyond the river you'll soon notice how much quieter this new trail is compared to the Little River Trail.
Almost immediately after turning onto the Huskey Gap Trail you'll begin a short climb. After cresting this relatively easy hill, you'll descend into a meadow carpeted with ferns. During this section of trail we began to notice a fair amount of yellow trillium.
This, however, was nothing compared to what we saw later on.
Roughly half-way between the Little River Trail and Huskey Gap we ran into an absolute
riot of flowers: yellow, white and painted trillium, blue phlox, hepaticas and
violets. There were a couple of hillsides throughout this section of trail that
were literally covered in wildflowers. This is an excellent trail to hike
during the April and May time period if your goal is to spot wildflowers.
At roughly 5 miles you'll reach Huskey Gap where the Huskey Gap Trail intersects with the Sugarland Mountain Trail. You won't have much of a view here, but you will have a few peeks into the mountains to the west of you in the last half-mile prior to reaching the gap.
