Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Huskey Gap, Rough Creek, Sugarland Mountain Loop

It was a tough day of slogging around in the snow, but somebody's got to do it. I made the drive over to the Smokies this morning and drove a short distance up the Newfound Gap Road to the Huskey Gap Trailhead.

I hit the trail a little bit after 8 and made my way through the fairly deep, but powdery snow.

The first 2 miles of the hike were uphill. Every now and then a view opened up out to the surrounding, snowy mountains.

I stopped for a short time to admire a barred owl in a tree

and then continued on my ascent up through frosty rhododendrons

to Huskey Gap. From the gap it was a descent down to the Little River which I had hiked along a few weeks ago. It was starting to warm up a bit and the formerly powdery snow was starting to get wet and stick to my microspikes. I opted to take them off at the junction with the Little River Trail.

I followed the Little River for about 1.7 miles. The river was beautiful as it was lined with snow and snow covered rocks.

At the junction with the Rough Creek Trail

I made a left and started a pretty steep ascent. The trail crosses Rough Creek 3 times.

Unfortunately, during one of the crossings I lost my footing and plunged a leg into the icy cold waters. Luckily I was wearing gaiters, which kept my legs and feet reasonably dry. As I approached the top of the Rough Creek Trail I was getting tired. It's hard work trudging through the snow. I enjoyed the break whenever I reached a short section of trail that the snow did not stick to.

Today's snow was deep enough to be a pain to walk in, but not deep enough for snowshoes. When I finally reached the junction with Sugarland Mountain Trail, I knew the worst of the ascent was over.

Near the junction of the Sugarland Mountain and Rough Creek Trail is a nice view of the Chimneys.

I admired the view for a bit and then made my way back towards the Huskey Gap Trail. There were some limited views through the trees

and a few rocky landmarks

to make the hiking interesting, but by this point I was pretty tired and so I just kept hiking away.

When I finally reached Huskey Gap, it was a quick descent back to the car. It felt so good to walk on a nice firm surface and take off my snow boots which were digging into my heels. Altogether, it was a 14.8 mile hike in snow that was often about 5 inches deep.