Green Knob Best Hike

• Difficulty: More Difficult
• Total Length: 9 mi
• Trail Tread Condition: Some Obstacles
• Climb: Hilly
• Lowest Elevation: 5080 ft
• Highest Elevation: 5900 ft
• Total Elevation Gain: 1200 ft
• Trails/Roads Used: Mountains to Sea Trail, Green Mountain Trail
• Hike Configuration: Out-and-back
• Starting point: Mountains to Sea Trail access along NC 215, just north of the Blue Ridge Parkway
• How to Get There: From Asheville, take I-40 west to NC 215 in Canton. Follow NC 215 South through Canton (follow signs, there are several turns). Continue on NC 215, past Lake Logan, and up the West Fork Pigeon River valley, to the parking area just before the Parkway on the right. Alternate Route: Travel the Parkway south from Asheville, and exit on NC 215. Turn left; the parking area is just down the road on the left.

Trail and Summit of Green Knob

Important Note: This hike is rated as More Difficult for climbs and tread surface, but it is rated Most Difficult if you are not familiar with Wilderness travel. It is essential to have a map and a compass and survival supplies for hikes in the Wilderness, especially at these high, exposed altitudes. No signs or blazes are available to guide you. Although it is fairly easy to find the trail, grassy openings can make it nearly impossible to navigate when it is foggy or the trail is snow-covered, so hike this trail on a sunny day! The trail itself is surprisingly well-graded, with only moderate amounts of rocks and roots, eroded sections, and slick grass along its entire length, along with creek crossing and muddy/wet areas along the first half of the hike. Also, the trail is cliff-top in some sections along Fork Ridge, so take care against falls.

The hike starts out on the Mountains to Sea Trail on the same side of the road as the parking area. It's on the right if you came up 215 from Canton, and on the Left if you came down from the Parkway. You will begin hiking in a Northerly direction. The beginning of this hike takes you across a significant stream (Bubbling Springs Branch) and then into a cool high-elevation forest of mostly birch trees. You'll also encounter beeches, maples, Mountain Ash, Red spruce, and Fraser fir. Some large, healthy examples of both Fraser Fir and Red Spruce can be found on this hike, which is encouraging as this forest type is under siege from several fronts: invading insects, acid rain, and perhaps even a warming climate. Tree mortality in this area seems to be (right now) lower than average, if not normal, for this type of forest. You'll also find the essential Rhododendrons, Mountain Laurels, and dense thickets of Blueberries along the trail.

The entire hike will consist of this type of forest, and your altitude will climb from just above 5000' to just below 6000'. Before long, the trail will pick up on an old road or probably railroad bed, and begin a steady climb uphill. You'll pass through the first of many grassy, open meadows, after which the trail will wrap around the ridge and start heading South. It begins following an apparently unnamed stream uphill. You'll gradually get closer and closer to the stream, and it sounds like there may be a waterfall on the stream far below you. The road will eventually cross the stream where two forks of it come together. You'll pass onto the spit of land between the two creeks and begin following the right fork upstream. Then the creek turns right out of sight into the rhododendron thicket; uphill from that point is a significant waterfall of which you will enjoy a view shortly! The trail curves left, crosses the left fork, then begins traveling sidehill up a low, broad ridge. An opening in the trees after just a few hundred yards presents an awe-inspiring view of the high, thin falls - probably only flowing significantly during wet weather - and the slopes around it covered with high-elevation spruces and firs.

The trail switches back sharply, and one more (even better) view opens up of the falls. Then you'll again cross the far upper reaches of that left fork - just muddy seeps and trickles at this point, with makeshift log bridges - and then shortly thereafter you'll reach the ridgeline where the trail dries out temporarily. On your right is an attractive forest of healthy Birches growing in a grassy gulch. The trail then slides left of the ridge. Here you can begin to hear cars on the Parkway below you on the left. You may also find a piece of rusty wire rope, a remnant from the days of logging in this area. Leave it alone - it is federally protected! Besides, you want to leave it just as you found it for the next person who hikes through. As you gradually swing back to the right toward Mount Hardy, a nice view of this peak and of Herrin Knob to the left of it opens up on your left side.

The trail crosses over the ridge again, and then you'll climb up the same steep mountainside and cliff band over which the waterfall flows. At the top of this is a plateau above the falls, a high bench on the East flank of Mount Hardy. On this plateau grows a Catawba rhododendron thicket and it will arch over the trail, forming a tunnel. Notice that the land around you is flatter than it has been so far during the hike. Not only does this area give the stream a chance to grow before heading over the falls, but the poorly drained soils underlain with solid bedrock supports an interesting environment - the high elevation peat bog. Water cannot sink into the ground due to the bedrock, and the land is flat enough for it to collect and spongy, boggy areas result. Rare plants find their homes here and nowhere else. This habitat is threatened by development and trampling, so be sure to stay on the trail as you cross several small tributaries headed for the falls.

You'll begin winding up the ridge that forms the North edge of the bench, and then you'll follow the relatively level ridgeline until it joins the crest of Fork Ridge, which heads north from Mount Hardy. This area in general is where two major mountain ridges meet. They're the Pisgah Ridge, which runs Northeast all the way to to Asheville, and the Balsam Mountains, which run Northwest to the Great Smoky Mountains. There are a lot of high-elevation flat areas - such as Graveyard Fields, the Flat Laurel Valley, and the little bench you just traveled through - in the crook of these two ranges, making for some very interesting ecological habitats and interesting places to hike in general. You may find Pinkshell Azalea or Wretched Sedge in the crevices of rock outcrops. The forests resemble Western ones in places, with tall conifers growing on grassy slopes. The thick, tangled undergrowth in other places, however, is a dead giveaway that you are in the wet, wet east. This combination of topography and weather also ensures that there are plenty of waterfalls, another of which you will be seeing shortly!

As you approach the crest of Fork Ridge, you'll encounter the steepest climb yet, with a large grassy opening on the left. Just past this you reach the summit of the ridge, and an un-signed trail joins from the right. This is the Green Mountain trail and it's where you will want to turn right for this hike. Since this trail is not signed, blazed, nor very heavily used - and tends to fade out in places - it is essential to have a map and compass to make it to Green Knob from here. It is not difficult, but do not even attempt to do so on a foggy day!

The forest at this point is primarily Red Spruce and Fraser Fir. But you will wind through some grassy openings, and also several saddles that contain the beginnings of a "Beech Gap" forest. The Beech Gap forest occurs when American Beeches take hold and gradually monopolize the forest in the saddles along a high ridge like this one. These are "deciduous islands" in the spruce-fir forests of the ridges. These short, stocky trees - shaped into "orchard vegetation" by the wind - provide an interesting and unique habitat once they become established. The way the trees grow and reproduce differs from stands of American beech at lower elevations. Here, the patches of beech trees are still small, yet will likely continue to grow until each saddle is filled with them. This is yet another fascinating anomaly of the Southern Appalachian forests.

Along the Fork Ridge trail, you'll pass over two smaller summits and a couple of small knobs before ascending to Green Knob itself. Green Knob is the first place where a significant view opens up to the left, so this is one way to know that you're there. If the trail starts heading steeply downhill for a long ways - then you've probably gone past it! This is where this hike ends, and you'll find a nice campsite here with an astounding view of the ridge to your East. Most evident is Sam Knob with its characteristic two summits in the foreground. To the right of Sam Knob you can see Little Sam Knob, with the Flat Laurel Creek cascades tumbling out of the high, relatively flat, grassy meadows behind these two mountains. Behind and to the right of Sam Knob looms the long, grassy ridge of Black Balsam Knob and the sharp point of Tennent Mountain can be seen to the left of that.

Also, almost the entire trace of the Flat Laurel Creek trail can be seen from here, from NC 215 on the right to where it disappears behind the shoulder of Sam Knob, just before terminating in the parking area at the end of FR 816. Above this roadbed grows a thick Spruce/Fir forest. Below it grow mostly northern Hardwoods with only scattered spruces and firs. If you look closely, you may be able to see FR 816 coming through the gap below Black Balsam Knob and heading down to the intersection with the Flat Laurel Creek trail, a popular trailhead for hikes into the Shining Rock Wilderness.

After drinking up the unmatched views, return to your vehicle following the same route.