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Directions to Trailhead:

At the junction of 441 and 321 in Gatlinburg (Light 3), turn right onto 321. Drive 6 miles and turn right into Greenbrier (look for Smoky Mountain National Park entrance sign on right). This road will turn into a gravel road in a short distance. Drive 3.1 miles to the fork in the road. Stay straight to go to the Porters Creek trailhead. The parking lot will be almost another mile from this fork.
 

Trail Description:

The first mile of the Porters Creek Trail is actually an old gravel road. The trail winds through a lush forest of moss covered trees and rocks as it follows Porters Creek. If you’re hiking this trail during the spring, you’ll be greeted by an awesome display of yellow trillium at the beginning of this trail.  

At roughly two-thirds of a mile, several old stone walls appear on your right, the remnants of an old mountain community. Also on your right, just past these walls is a small cemetery dating from the early part of the 20th century.

 

Just past the first of two footbridges, at 1.0 mile, the road forks. The trail to the right will take you to a historic farm site. A short hike of about 250 yards will take you to the John Messer farm site which includes a cantilevered barn, built around 1875. There’s also a cabin that was built by the Smoky Mountain Hiking Club in the mid-1930’s. 

If you want to continue onto the waterfalls at this junction, go left at the fork. You’ll walk another 100 feet and will come to another trail junction, go left here as well to continue on the Porters Creek Trail.
 

The road turns into a path at this point. You’ll also begin to see much larger, old growth trees as you head further upstream. At 1.6 miles you’ll cross the second footbridge. Just past this bridge we began to see many wildflowers. The forest floor was carpeted with bloodroot, hepatica, violets, white trilliums and other flowers during our hike in late March.

 

At roughly 2 miles, Fern Branch Falls comes down off the ridge to the left of the trail. During high water flows, this is a spectacular waterfall. This hike ends at this point, but the trail continues on for another 1.7 miles to a backcountry camp site.
 Porters Creek Trail
 Trail Features:   Waterfalls, Flowers, Stream, History
 Trail Location: Greenbrier
 Roundtrip Miles: 4.0 miles
 Total Elevation Gain: 699 feet
 Avg. Elev Gain / Mile:  350 feet
 Highest Elevation: 2642 feet
 Trail Difficulty Rating:   5.4 (moderate)
 Parking Lot Latitude: 35.69696
 Parking Lot Longitude:   -83.38773