Big Agnes (my favorite
tent) and the McGee Springs campsite in early April
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The region surrounding Hyatt Ridge has become one of my favorite cold weather destinations. I like to head over during the week to hike up the Ridge from the Beech Gap trailhead. The trailhead is located next to where the Straight Fork ford at Round Bottom used to be. There is now a new, big bridge going in that will replace the oft-flooded ford, but the beauty of the little mountain cove remains. I've hiked the trail so many times in recent weeks that I believe that I could probably do it now with my eyes closed. During the summer months, horse traffic is heavy on both the Beech Gap trail and the Hyatt Ridge trail, but off-season, it's a hiker's delight. At one time, the Hyatt Ridge trail extended all the way over to the Balsam Mountain trail near Tricorner Knob, but trail maintenance was dropped for the path about 35 years ago. The old trail, part of which was once a jeep access road, was a beautiful way to travel from Raven Fork to the high country around Tricorner. Now it's a rough manway, but the beauty is still there. The McGee Springs campsite, off-season, is as pretty as any site in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It lies high above the wild valley of the Right Fork of Raven Fork at an elevation of about 5,050 feet. Early in the spring, the little cove where Campsite #44 is located is carpeted with a snowy-white carpet of white-fringed phacelias. I haven't stayed there when other parties were there, so I suppose that makes it easier to have a favorable opinion of the site, but dang, it's a great one. The last time I stayed there, early in April of 2006, my only company was a young bear that played peekaboo around the campsite for most of the time that I was there, and a barred owl that called through the night. Most of all, I like the Hyatt Ridge area because of what it borders - the wild untrailed drainage of the Raven Fork. Like the rugged Greenbrier wilderness valley on the Tennessee side of the Great Smoky Mountains, Raven Fork is a playground for the hardcore bushwhacker. |
