Kephart Prong Trail
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GSMA Hike of the Month: Kephart Prong Trail
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Join the Great Smoky Mountain Association for guided hike along the Kephart Prong Trail on Saturday, November 17th.
The Kephart Prong Trail on the North Carolina side of the park (9 miles from Newfound Gap or 5 miles from the Smokemont Campground) is an easy four-mile round trip hike. The area was heavily logged in the 1920s to 1930s, so most of the trees are only 80 to 90 years old. The hike will gain 830' along a varied walking surface, from old gravel road bed to old blacktop to dirt trail. You will discover the remains of a CCC Camp, a fish hatchery, and a narrow gauge railway.
The trail will make several crossings of the prong as you make our way to the turn around point; a backcountry shelter that was the site of a logging camp and recently renovated by Friends of the Smokies.
An alternate hike, should the road (route 441) be closed due to inclement weather will be the Old Sugarlands Trail, located across 441 from Park Headquarters building. This trail is also rated easy and will be about the same mileage. There is a CCC Camp there as well.
If interested, meet at Sugarlands Visitor Center at 8:30 am where participants will carpool to the trailhead. Please bring water, lunch and warm clothes as it may be cool in the woods. For more information on the event, please call 865-436-7318, Ext. 222 or 254.
For more details on hiking the Kephart Prong Trail, please click here.
Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com
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The Kephart Prong Trail on the North Carolina side of the park (9 miles from Newfound Gap or 5 miles from the Smokemont Campground) is an easy four-mile round trip hike. The area was heavily logged in the 1920s to 1930s, so most of the trees are only 80 to 90 years old. The hike will gain 830' along a varied walking surface, from old gravel road bed to old blacktop to dirt trail. You will discover the remains of a CCC Camp, a fish hatchery, and a narrow gauge railway.
The trail will make several crossings of the prong as you make our way to the turn around point; a backcountry shelter that was the site of a logging camp and recently renovated by Friends of the Smokies.
An alternate hike, should the road (route 441) be closed due to inclement weather will be the Old Sugarlands Trail, located across 441 from Park Headquarters building. This trail is also rated easy and will be about the same mileage. There is a CCC Camp there as well.
If interested, meet at Sugarlands Visitor Center at 8:30 am where participants will carpool to the trailhead. Please bring water, lunch and warm clothes as it may be cool in the woods. For more information on the event, please call 865-436-7318, Ext. 222 or 254.
For more details on hiking the Kephart Prong Trail, please click here.
Jeff
HikingintheSmokys.com
Speaking of water pipes, if you do a little exploring off the trail you'll come across several large pipes scattered in the weeds in this same area. I've since learned that the Works Project Administration built a fish hatchery near this location in the 1930s to replenish trout and bass in the mountain streams. Were the pipes used as part of this operation? Did the WPA use the pipes to divert water from nearby Kephart Prong to the hatchery?
Further up the trail we came across this large cement block sitting just above the trail. Anyone know what this was used for? I've read in a couple of places that this may have been a cistern. However, I'm not sure that necessarily makes sense, as workers would have used the nearby stream as a source of water. Unless of course the Kephart Prong was contaminated due to all the logging. 
