The Giant Trees 

of Cataloochee National Forest
 

 

If you want to hug a giant tree from Cataloochee National Forest and wrap your hands around it you better bring some friends.  In fact you'll probably need 3 or 4.  These mammoth trees are truly worth the hike.  They are documented as the largest trees east of the Rocky Mountains.  Stop by the ranger station and get more information about the trails leading to these natural wonders.

Directions: Follow 276 toward interstate 40 and turn left 1/10 of a mile before the interstate onto Cove Creek Road (NC 284). Travel 5.8 miles on this narrow, steep, winding, mostly gravel road to the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Go slow and be careful! Continue another 1.7 miles to a paved road. Follow road another 3.5 miles until you see several old buildings and a meadow on each side of the road.

Just A Few of the Mammoths

Type
Height Diameter Location
White pine - “Boogerman Pine”
185.5’ 11’  5.0” Near eastern end of Boogerman Loop Trail, off Caldwell Creek Trail, Palmer Branch, Cataloochee Valley,  Haywood Co
Tuliptree
176.7’ 8’  1.0” Baxter Creek, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Haywood Co
 Eastern hemlock
167.0’ 12’  8.0” “Jim Branch Giant,” Jim Branch (west side), Cataloochee valley, Haywood Co.
 

Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest - Outside Robbinsville, North Carolina

Joyce Kilmer

Trees

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

An d lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that in summer wear

A nest of robin in her hair;

Upon those blossom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree

 

 

 

Located in beautiful Maggie Valley