Cherokee National Forest: Hell Hollow Trail

Rain was in the forecast today. However, with it being a special Daddy/Daughter Adventure Day, I asked Sierra what she wanted to do and she said hiking. (I really do love that little girl!) And so, after a trip to the farmer's market, we set out to do some hiking. I found a short trail marked Hell Hollow on the map and decided that we would go to hell and back today.

We drove Clark's Creek Road to the trailhead.

I got Sierra into the backpack

and we hit the trail.

In the course of researching the trail I could not find much information about it. I now know why: it's not that spectacular. Still, any day out in the woods is a good day. The trail climbed up to a ridge with limited views off to the hazy mountains.

Then the trail descended a bit until it came to an overgrown section of old road bed. The trail is only .8 mile long and so I figured this was the official end of the trail. More adventurous hikers could scramble amongst the rhododendron to explore further, but with Sierra this would be our turnaround point.

The hike back to the car was mostly downhill. We saw a few mushrooms

and a pile of bear scat, but not much else that seemed particularly interesting. After getting back to the car and eating a quick snack,

I decided an appropriate end to our adventure would be lunch at the Old Town Dairy Bar in Jonesborough. We had lunch and the "special treat" of a strawberry sundae before heading home. Another successful Daddy/Daughter Adventure!