American Travel Journal: Little River Trail to Goshen Prong Trail Junction

We started hiking the Little River Trail upstream from Elkmont with the plan to take the Cucumber Gap Trail and Jakes Creek Trail to make a loop hike. However, the river was so enticing we decided to follow it upstream to Goshen Prong Trail before returning along the same route for a 7.4 mile hike. We hiked in mid-March 2016.

Elkmont is an interesting location in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Once a pioneer community, then a logging camp, it became a resort community for the wealthy of East Tennessee to gather away from the summer heat of the Tennessee valley in the early 1900s. When the national park was created in 1934, lifetime leases were created for the cabin owners in Elkmont. In 1952, these were converted into twenty year leases and renewed in 1972. In 1992, the park refused to renew the leases and made plans to remove the Wonderland Hotel and all the cabins. However, the Elkmont Historic District, consisting of the hotel and several cabins, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994. This listing gave the structures special status that precluded their demolition. By 2005, the hotel collapsed due to years of minimal or no maintenance by the park service. In 2009, the National Park Service reached an agreement with the Tennessee Historical Commission and other stakeholders to restore the Appalachian Clubhouse and eighteen cabins while removing the remaining structures. While restoration work has been completed on the Appalachian Clubhouse, much of the restoration and demolition work awaits funding. In the interim, many of the structures are demolishing themselves. Signs posted along the Little River Trail warn visitors to stay away from the dilapidated structures near the trail.

The trail begins at a gate near the hiker parking area. The first 0.2 miles is asphalt and the next 0.8 miles is a gravel road. At one mile, boulders have been placed on the trail at a vehicle turnaround. The gravel surface continues for the most part to the Little River Bridge at 2.7 miles. The final mile is a graded dirt and rock single-lane road. The trail climbs about 600 feet in the 3.7 mile distance we hiked for a very gentle grade of about 3%.

Just beyond the Cucumber Gap Trail junction, a portion of the hillside had slid down onto the trail. This has narrowed the trail to little more than a footpath for a hundred feet or so. Large stones have been placed in muddy places to allow rock hopping through this area. Once past the slide area, the trail widens back out to a one lane gravel road.

Due to the proximity to the river, the Little River Trail is one of the most continuously and consistently beautiful trails in the park.