Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Mt Sterling/Pretty Hollow Gap/ Little Cataloochee/ Long Bunk Loop

With beautiful weather forecast for today, I just had to get out for a hike. I decided to head over to Great Smoky Mountains National Park to enjoy the weather and fall foliage. Since I did not want to go anywhere near Gatlinburg, I decided to do a loop hike starting at Mt Sterling Gap. The drive was long, but uneventful and before I knew it I was at the trailhead to start my hike.

The hike started with an ascent on an old road. The fall colors in the morning light were quite spectacular.

After about an hour on the trail I had made my way up Mount Sterling. I climbed the old fire tower and admired the wonderful views.

The sky was absolutely cloudless and there was no humidity making for the beautiful bluebird skies that one sees in the western US.

The views in all directions were just spectacular.

I spend about 10 minutes admiring the view and then headed down the tower and back down the Mt Sterling Ridge Trail to continue on the loop of my hike. At the junction with the Pretty hollow Gap Trail

I turned left and descended,

eventually walking along Pretty Hollow Creek.

Eventually my descent ended and I turned onto the Little Cataloochee Trail.

I was really looking forward to this portion of the hike as I had read about some of the old buildings that have been preserved in the Little Cataloochee Valley. I soon found an obviously maintained side trail that led up and up. It eventually ended at a cemetery. There was only one marked grave in the cemetery. It was that of a 2 year old boy named Charlie Burress.

After pausing for a minute I returned to the main trail to continue my hike into Little Cataloochee.

The first evidence of past habitation that I found was a large flat area that was obviously an old home site. There was one of the old hog traps

set up on the flat area and nearby were a few moldering logs left from a log structure.

I continued on through beautiful colors

to the Cook Cabin

where I met and talked to a man from Charleston, SC. There was a brilliant orange butterfly fluttering about in the grass outside the cabin. I was able to get close enough to it to get a nice photo.

The butterfly then took off flying and landed right on my arm.

I admired the close view of the butterfly for a few minutes before it flew away again, this time for good. Nearby to the Cook Cabin is the old Cook apple house.

The Cooks acquired quite a bit of wealth growing and selling apples.

From the Cook place I followed the trail (really a road at this point) up to the Little Cataloochee Baptist Church.

It is a pretty little church. I went inside to have a look around

and even rang the church bell a few times. I then went back outside to inspect the cemetery a little bit. From the cemetery I got back on the trail and headed across Little Cataloochee Creek

over to the Hannah Cabin

which looked to be smaller than the Cook Cabin and was certainly less interesting. Shortly after leaving the Hannah Cabin I found my self at the junction with the Long Bunk Trail which I had hiked to from Old NC Highway 284 two weeks ago.

I h turned onto the Long Bunk Trail and began an ascent to the Hannah Cemetery.

I did not stop long at the cemetery as I was starting to get tired. Instead I kept moving, albeit slowly, up the trail. The Long Bunk Trail portion of today's hike turned out to be the least interesting part of the hike. I did find a tree marked with a faint white blaze with a trail nearby that led to what I am guessing is an old cemetery with unmarked graves as it was a flat area cleared of woody vegetation. There was one stone set in the ground that appeared to be a grave marker,

but nothing else. When I finally arrived back at the junction with the Mt Sterling Trail, it was a quick walk back to the car fro the drive back to Greeneville.