Enjoy the quiet
For most of the year Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail is just as its name suggests -- an idyllic route for windshield sightseers who hesitate to leave their cars for more than a brief stroll.
For this reason, you won't find it in most hiking guides. Nevertheless, it's a great 51/2-mile walk in winter when the road is gated by the national park.
The one-way Roaring Fork Road is unlike any other in the Smokies. Only 10 feet wide with no shoulders, it snakes around huge mossy boulders, up onto ridges and down into hollers. You'll cross the aptly named Roaring Fork many times, and it's never more beautiful than now, when its fringes are laced with icicles that gleam like crystal in the glint of sunshine.
As you make your way through the noncommercialized spur of US 441 between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, pull off at the Gatlinburg Welcome Center. For $1 you can pick up a self-guiding tour of the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, a handy guide to the sights along your way. They'll tell you it's closed, but you already knew that.
After continuing through town and into the national park, you'll pass through the Cherokee Orchard community and past the turnoff to Twin Creeks, the park's research center. Beyond this is the Noah "Bud" Ogle Place. When you pass parking areas for the popular Rainbow Falls hike, you're getting close. The Cherokee Orchard Road becomes one-way, but don't park until you've reached the well-marked and gated entrance to Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. As mentioned earlier, you'll need to arrange a ride back to your car at the end of this walk.
Once past the gated entrance you'll hike steadily uphill through unimpressive second growth forest. Persevere. The surroundings will soon get far more interesting.
Before the national park moved in, the Roaring Fork community was home to more than a dozen families: some hard-scrabble farmers who barely scraped a living from the boulder strewn soil, others who prospered from turning their hand at a variety of trades.
You'll pass the carefully preserved remains of their log homes, great spots for resting out of the chilly wind and opening your thermos of hot cocoa.
After a breathtaking pull up to the crest in the road, you'll see trail marker No. 3, a clearing with log benches perfect for looking out on Sugarland and Cove mountains. In wintry weather, the mountains are frosted with a dusting of snow, their usual deep greens and purples now changed to delicate pastels.
The next attraction along your way is the graveyard of massive American Chestnuts, which fell to the blight in the 1920s and '30s but are still much in evidence. In spring these rotting trunks will provide a fertile nesting spot for many small creatures and fragile new plants.
As you look at them, try to imagine when these mammoths dominated the forest, forming a dense canopy overhead, dropping their rich fruit so loved by humans and black bears.
This is just the first of the many "side trips" down memory lane suggested by the variety of changing landscape on the Roaring Fork Road.
Back on your way, the road now descends steeply. The forest will change to a stand of cathedral-like hemlock, shady even on the sunniest of days.
Mossy and dank, this is a favored spot of moisture seeking salamanders, though you won't find amphibians out and about at this time of year.
The birds are a different matter. The ones who haven't flown south for the winter will flap and cry in alarm, surprised at seeing humans who disappeared two months ago and have now returned more quietly than usual.
At trail marker No. 5 you'll pass the Trillium Gap trail that leads to Grotto Falls, the same trail used by llamas to supply LeConte Lodge with linens, fresh produce and other supplies three times each week. Since the lodge is closed for winter, it's not likely you'll see any evidence of them.
Continue on your walk and you'll begin to see signs of the settlers who scraped a living from rocky farms in Roaring Fork before the national park service moved in. The clearings that were once cornfields are now choked with yellow poplar.
A small cemetery at marker No. 9 is visited by family members in an annual homecoming each June.
Next are the log homes and farm buildings of two families. The first one, built by Ephraim Bales (1865-1925), was recently restored with money donated by Log Cabin Syrup Co. It's actually two log cabins with a breezeway in between. Try to imagine raising nine children there.
Next is the tub mill, powered by the creek. Farmers brought the grain they scratched from the rocky soil, handing over a portion of it in payment for grinding.
The owner of this mill, Alfred Reagan, lived in the cabin and ran the store nearby. He also took up blacksmithing and farming.
Reagan's ambitious undertakings made him one of the area's most prosperous residents. His descendants still figure prominently in Gatlinburg real estate and tourism businesses.
After the settlement the road begins its twisting, turning course again, crossing Roaring Fork repeatedly, sparkling in the sunlight, crashing into and over the grayback boulders, its clamor making conversation near impossible at times.
Nearing the end of your journey, you'll approach one of winter's finest wonders in the national park, The Place of a Thousand Drips. While not too impressive in summer or fall, winter is another story. The seeping constant drip of water through a massive stone wall forms a sculpture of glittering icicles. When the sun glints off this spectacle, it's beauty is beyond words.
As you leave the park, you'll pass Ely's Mill, a pleasant tourist attraction. On down Roaring Fork Road are several motels and resorts where you can call a taxi or arrange to be picked up by friends for a ride back to your car. Rather than fighting traffic on the parkway, take the Baskin's Creek bypass left off Highway 321. It will lead you around the back side of Fun Mountain and back to Cherokee Orchard Road near the park entrance.
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail
Distance: 5 1/2 miles one way
Difficulty: Moderate
Directions: Take US 441 through Gatlinburg to Airport Road at traffic light No. 8. Turn left and continue until the road splits. Follow the right fork, Cherokee Orchard Road, past Mynatt Park and into Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It's about 4 miles from there to the gated Roaring Fork road.
