Ramsay Cascades Trail

The trail leads hikers along the Middle Prong of the Little Pigeon River to one of Great Smoky Mountain National Park’s most beautiful waterfalls: Ramsay Cascades. Along the way hikers pass by some of the largest chestnut oaks in the Smokies, as well as a grove of tall black cherry trees. From there the trails picks its way through some massive boulders, which signals the beginning of the approach to Ramsay Cascades.

The trail is in and back 4 mile trail (8 miles roundtrip), with the inbound journey being uphill. The last miles is steep and can be extremely slippery during wet and cold weather, many hikers rank this as being a difficult trail due to length, ascent and slippery terrain. The first 1.5 miles is an old logging road with gravel, but then changes to a more traditional 1 person wide trail past that. At 2.6 miles the trees get very large and you can see 7+ feet diameter Tulip Trees.