Hiking Little River and Cucumber Gap Loop Trail, GSMNP

Описание: The Little River and Cucumber Gap Loop trail is an easy 6 mile loop in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (#GSMNP) that follows along a beautiful mountain stream and passes through some deep forest. There are no high hills and most of the trail is smooth and well graded.

The hike starts at the Little River trailhead near the Elkmont Campground and historic district and proceeds up a gravel road along side the river. The first and last parts of the trail pass by some old unoccupied Elkmont cabins and their ruins. These cabins were constructed prior to the establishment of the park and many have fallen into ruin, although there are some that have been selected to be restored to a state where they are safe for visitors to explore.

The Little River drains a large area of the western Smokies and was the site of major logging operations in the days before the establishment of the park. Traces of these logging operations are apparently in many places, even just including the well engineered paths that this trail takes; which were former railroad lines used to remove logs.

After following Little River for about 2.6 miles, you come to the junction with the Cucumber Gap trail. Cucumber Gap leaves the Little River behind and takes you over the gap into the Jake’s Creek drainage. Along the way you cross a small stream and pass through some beautiful 2nd growth forest of Fraiser magnolias; which are sometimes called “cucumber trees” due to their spiky fruit and this is probably why this is called Cucumber Gap. This segment of the hike is much more solitary than Little River (which can almost seem crowded).

Finally, you return to the Elkmont area along a short downhill section of the Jake’s Creek Trail.

Trail info: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/te...
Link to Park info: https://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm

Photos:
Logging Train: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/21443...
Logging Logs on Train: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2128998
Tremont Clear Cut (Blount County Library): https://www.tnhistoryforkids.org/hist...
Poplar Tree Stump (National Park Service): https://www.tnhistoryforkids.org/hist...

Title card music by Lobo-Loco: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lob...

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