Oconaluftee River Trail - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

We walked the nearly flat Oconaluftee River Trail to town and back one morning in late March 2016. The trail begins at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and ends at the park boundary. Hikers can continue on into Cherokee, North Carolina by using the sidewalk. The trail is open to hikers, pets on a maximum 6' leash and bicyclists. The trail descends about 70 feet over the course of 1.5 miles for a grade of less than 1%. A great deal more information is available on our previous walk along the trail in October 2012 and can be found here. 

Topographic map with GPS trail overlay

The trail enters the woods just south of the Mountain Farm Museum

Bridge over an unnamed drainage

Oconaluftee River at the upstream end of an unnamed island

River just below the island

Blue Ridge Parkway bridge over the Oconaluftee River

The second bridge on the trail

Packed dirt trail

The trail only crosses one road

End of the trail

Entry to Great Smoky Mountains National Park is free.

The park website is http://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm.