Noland Divide - Pole Road Creek - Deep Creek Trail

Date:  11/30/13
Distance: 15 miles
Today was my first visit to the Deep Creek area of the park.  We left a car at Deep Creek and returned to the Clingman's Dome road at the Noland Divide Trailhead.  We left Sugarland's Visitor Center about 8:00am after waiting for 441 to open due to ice on the road.  By the time we drove to Deep Creek and returned to the trailhead, it was a bit after 10:00.

The trail was covered with snow for the 1st few miles and was a little rocky for the 1st couple miles.

After the 1st mile or so, the trail became very smooth and was easy to hike fast as it was downhill, but not too steep.

After 3.7 miles, we reached the intersection with the Pole Road Creek Trail.  We followed Pole Road for 3.3 miles before turning right on Deep Creek Trail for the rest of the hike.

 At one point, the trail turned into a creek for about 50 yards.  We managed to rock hop it without too much trouble, but it did slow us down.

 There were also a number of creek crossings which we had to navigate.  A couple of them had large trees which were strategically located across the more difficult crossings.

At Deep Creek there was a very scenic waterfall.

 Back near the car, we took the short loop trail to Juney Whank Falls.  It was smaller, but had a bridge right at the base of the falls.

The hike had about 4000' of elevation loss, but it didn't feel too steep.  We hiked at about 3mph as we were anxious to get back over the mountain before the road closed again.  

Up on the Clingman's Dome Road, we saw this.