Top: Paul enjoys a siesta on a warm early April morning at the McGee Springs campsite. We were there to bushwhack down into the Right Fork drainage from the old Hyatt Ridge trail. Even though a few snowbanks remained hidden away in shaded ravines on the north side of the ridge, here on top of the ridge, conditions were just right for a snooze in the sun.

Below: Seldom seen Right Fork, at a point about a mile above the Three Forks pool. Our bushwhack route followed an old manway down through the dense rhododendron hell on the right side of the photo. A century ago, there were quite a few paths criss-crossing the Raven Fork wilderness, but today, only a handful of faint and over-grown manways remain. Probably the best known is the route down to Three Forks from Breakneck Ridge. It's not a place for casual exploration, with incredibly dense hells blanketing many of the ridges and stream bottoms. At times, the easiest way to travel the Raven Fork drainages is to simply wade the streams themselves.

Large scale logging never reached the Raven Fork wilderness. A few of the best trees were selectively logged in the drainage, but many stands of fine old growth still remain. Raven Fork drains a wide stretch of the Great Smokies and is subject to some pretty spectacular flash floods. Further down the valley, where the Enloe Creek trail crosses the river, a bridge was installed high above the water to provide a safer crossing in bad weather following the death of a hiker that was swept to his death by flood waters while trying to ford the stream.