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Mountains to Sea Trail
North Carolina's longest trail, The Mountains to Sea Trail, is an ambitious project to provide a foot path linking the Mountains in the West to the Coastal Plain in the East. The trail, when completed, will be over 900 miles long. For now, sections of foot path are linked with roads and state bicycle routes. Starting at Clingman's Dome (the highest point in Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park), traveling over Mount Mitchell (the highest mountain in the entire Appalachian chain), and through Jockey's Ridge State Park (the highest sand dune on the East Coast), this trail boasts many superlatives and includes sections that provide excellent day hikes in the Mountains area. This guide lists several of those as well as listing details about other parts of the trail in the Mountains.
While driving the Parkway and hiking in North Carolina's State Parks, look for the distinctive sign (shown above) and a trail with circular white blazes to identify the Mountains to Sea Trail.
As the trail heads north and then east from Clingman's Dome through the mountains, it exits the Western NC region at Hanging Rock State Park. The trail is divided into 22 official sections in the Western part of the state, varying from about 8 - 30 miles per section with an average of about 20 miles each.
The Mountains to Sea Trail along the Blue Ridge Parkway have now been officially designated as a National Reacreation Trail by the US Secretery of the Interior. Click here to find out more.
