Carvers Gap
to
Grassy Ridge Bald

Click on any of the images on this page for full size/full resolution pic.

This hike along the Appalachian Trail, over a portion of the Roan Mountain Balds is a bit out of my usual neighborhood (3 hour drive, one way, to the trailhead), but definitely worth it for the views, the terrain, and the people you meet along the way!

One of the blogs I follow regularly is Mark Peacock's Appalachian Trails, and a post about this trail in May of this year piqued my interest in exploring this area.

The trailhead is easy to find ... it is right where NC highway 261 (which becomes TN highway 143) crosses the North Carolina/Tennessee line. Note that for folks coming from NC, it is probably easier to get to this trailhead from the NORTH. I live south of Asheville, NC, and took I-26 north to Unicoi, TN, and then took highway 107 towards Limestone Cove, picking up highway 173 there. Follow that to 173's juncture with 19E. Turn right onto 19E, and follow that to the community of Roan Mountain, where you will turn right onto 143, coming to the trailhead in 13 miles. Driving time from Asheville was just over 2 hours.

If one were to come from the south, you'd meander on back roads for a much longer driving time, going thru Burnsville, to Bakersville, and then north to this gap.

Once you do arrive at Carvers Gap, you'll note that the AT also crosses at this point. To get to Grassy Ridge Bald, one heads north on the AT (across the highway from the parking area).

GPX data for download:  Carvers Gap to Grassy Ridge Trail.

DIRECTIONS

The trail begins by winding through a thick forest of conifers, which as Mark mentions on his blog, has a wonderful "other worldly" feel to it!

Soon enough tho, the trail leads out of the trees to the first of a long stretch of balds, as you climb up to the summit of Round Bald. Then, as the trail winds down off the eastern slope of Round Bald from its summit, the next bald (Jane Bald) can be seen continuously in the distance ahead of you. Just before reaching this second bald, I came to a section totally covered in blueberry bushes, every branch loaded with ripe berries!!

The bushes were incredibly thick, and birds were all over within the bushes! I could hear them flutter away from me to other sections of bushes, but never getting too far from all of nature's bounty!

After eating handfuls and handfuls of berries, I continued on towards Jane Bald's crest, only to see a mailbox up ahead! Approaching it, here's what I saw:

Say what?? Goat info??

Inside I found a ziplock bag with pamphlets describing the "Baa-tany Goat Project" - A volunteer based project to restore grassy bald corridors on Roan's western balds using goats as an experimental management tool. (quoted from the Project's brochure). They've even got a blog that covers goat and goatherd activities. Additional information on the goats, as well as the various species of plants and animals found in this mountain region is available here. See my post on my experience with the project here.

Continuing on from the Goat Info mailbox, the AT crests Jane Bald, and continues its due east direction. Just shy of the 2 mile point into the hike, one comes to a well labeled intersection where the AT continues to the left, and the spur trail to Grassy Ridge Bald bears right.

Taking the turnoff to the right, in 0.7 mile, one reaches a sections of rocks, with a tremendous drop off and view to the south.

Depending upon cloud cover, or lack thereof, one can see Grandfather Mountain from here. The day I was here, I was unable to find that well known profile ... even tho it was a very sunny day, there were lots of clouds forming off in the distance all through the day ... everything from misty wisps of fog, to huge cumulus clouds to black "it's going to rain any moment" type of clouds. All through the day, all these differing cloud types would form and then dissipate. A couple that I met at Grassy Ridge Bald, who have come here every summer for decades, said that they almost always see this type of cloud formation/dissipation with each visit (although they said some visits found this spot in fog so thick one couldn't see nearby trees!)

Grassy Ridge also has a monument to Cornelious Rex Peake, (1887-1964), whose farm was the highest cultivated farm in the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains, and who was instrumental in bringing the conservationist movement to this mountain.

The return trip on this out and back hike provides some wonderful long range views of the Appalachian Trail back to the trailhead at Carvers Gap. The photo at the top of this page is a shot taken from Grassy Ridge Bald; one can see the AT thread itself over the top of Jane Bald, and then around the south side of Round Bald.

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