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| Spruce-Fir Trail | ||
| Trail Features: | Spruce-Fir Forest | |
| Trail Location: | Clingmans Dome Road | |
| Roundtrip Miles: | 0.35 miles | |
| Total Elevation Gain: | 25 feet | |
| Avg. Elev Gain / Mile: | 143 feet | |
| Highest Elevation: | 5684 feet | |
| Trail Difficulty Rating: | 0.40 (easy) | |
| Parking Lot Latitude: | 35.5957 | |
| Parking Lot Longitude: | -83.45882 | |
Directions to Trailhead:
From the Sugarlands Visitor Center near Gatlinburg, drive 13.2 miles south along Newfound Gap Road to Clingmans Dome Road. Turn right onto Clingmans Dome Road and drive 2.7 miles to the parking area on the left for the Spruce-Fir Nature Trail. Just before reaching the parking area you’ll see a small sign on the right side of the road for “nature trail” indicating the approach of the trailhead.
From Cherokee, drive 20 miles north on Newfound Gap Road to reach Clingmans Dome Road.
Trail Description:
The Spruce-Fir Trail isn’t on the official trail map, but is a maintained trail by the Park service.
This is a short easy hike through a beautiful spruce-fir forest, as the name would imply. At the trailhead you’ll see a comment on the large National Park sign about a section of trail climbing 12%. I’m not sure what they’re talking about here. This is virtually a flat trail, with elevation changes of only 25 feet along the entire course of the trail.
Most of the trail follows along wooden boardwalks as you walk through a lush green forest. Unfortunately, the forest is under attack from the balsam wooly adelgid, an insect from Europe that is killing fir trees in the Smokies. You’ll notice a lot of dead trees lying on the ground as you hike this one-third of a mile loop trail.
As you wind your way around the loop, you’ll notice several large quartz rocks on the ground, which, at first glance, look like blocks of leftover ice and snow.
The day we hiked this trail a cold wind howled above us, however, the evergreen trees provided a sufficient wind break that kept us relatively warm.