Beauty Spot and Unaka Mountain - Pisgah National Forest, NC
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- Опубліковано 15 гру 2018
- Apologies up front for this video being so long, I took so much nice footage of views that I didn't know where to cut it. I also made a few mistakes talking about peaks. I was around 90 degrees off when pointing out the direction of the Black Mountains. They are south-southeast, not east of Beauty Spot. I also kept referring to the Unaka Mountain Picnic Area as a campground, not sure how that got stuck in my head.
A fantastic hike on October 19 to Beauty Spot, Unaka Mountain, and Pleasant Garden along the NC/TN border. Beginning at Indian Grave Gap on NC 197/TN 395, I hiked northeast on the Appalachian Trail closely following the Pisgah and Cherokee National Forest boundaries along the state border. This was the first time I've hiked in this area. The southern Unaka Mountains between the Roan Highlands and the Nolichucky River Gorge involve a lot of driving on two-lane roads and don't have many trails on the NC side. I've also overlooked Beauty Spot since I thought it was inferior to other nearby balds. But this was a good opportunity to do a full-day hike and include some peakbagging. After an initial stout climb out of Indian Grave Gap the AT gets much easier after the first half-mile. You can bypass all of this by driving gravel TN 280 to a parking lot below Beauty Spot.
The AT emerges from the trees and gradually climbs a surprisingly long, rectangular bald that seems to keep going and going. I was impressed with the nearly 360-degree views. To the south and southwest are the Bald Mountains across the Nolichucky River. Big Bald dominates the southern view, while the craggy peaks of the Shelton Laurel region are southwest beside Meadow Creek Mountain. The southeast view is the most stunning of the Black and Great Craggy Mountain ranges. This is the first time I've gotten a view of these peaks from this angle, and the prominent sharpness of Celo Knob is awesome. You can also see the Great Balsam Mountains further south, but the glare was rough on the camera. If you make your way down towards a small clearing east of the high point there is also a great view northeast of the Roan Highlands. The future destinations of Unaka Mountain and Pleasant Garden rise high above Beauty Spot due north.
The AT drops to the road then climbs up the side of Beauty Spot Northeast. On the north side of this peak is another long overgrown bald that has good views of Unaka Mountain. After this bald the trail drops steeply to Beauty Spot Gap, paralleling TN 280 for a few hundred yards. The next section is by far the toughest climb of the hike as the AT switchbacks almost 1,000 feet to Unaka Mountain. This upper portion of this section is nicknamed the Emerald Forest, and it lives up to its name around the summit of Unaka Mountain (5,190 feet) which is covered in mature spruce and fir. The understory was barren except for green moss clinging to trunks, making it a great place to camp or get out of the sun. On the way down I took a detour to see Pleasant Garden using TN 280. A short spur road leads to Pleasant Garden, a picnic area that has been abandoned. This is a heath bald plateau on the west side of Unaka Mountain with great views east and south. After soaking in the views I made my way back to the car, while also embarking on a short peakbag through open woods of Beauty Spot Northeast, a ranked TN4500 peak. This AT section surpassed my expectations with great views and few people outside of Beauty Spot.
Hike was 14.0 miles with 3,576 feet elevation gain in 7 hours.
Hike location
goo.gl/maps/nkXpAm4ntBN2
I didn't think there was someone who enjoyed maps as such as me. Yet here you are! Great write up and video! Going to keep binging.
Thanks Evan, I do love my maps. Planning is half the fun, I love perusing CalTopo.
The first A in Unaka is a long A :)
Have you hiked to Firescald Knob before? You can do a nice out and back on the AT from Camp Creek Bald, over Firescald and out to Buzzard Rock and back. The views are pretty spectacular
Yes I have, you are right it is a great section ua-cam.com/video/uxNA48e5zdo/v-deo.html
Zachary Robbins awesome. I just found your channel and hadn’t made it to that one yet. Really enjoy the videos I’ve been able to watch so far. I’ll check that one out.
Thanks I'm glad you are enjoying them so far
I think your videos are excellent and informative. I don't pay any attention to shakiness. Keep up the good work! Might want to give tours someday.
Thanks John, I'll probably skip doing tours for now
U-Nay-Cuh
Awesome hike Zach! Unaka Mountain is really unique with the open forest floor. A few hundred yards west of the peak is a small meadow and a spring that I've camped at a couple of times.
Do you just keep bushwhacking west? I wish I would've checked that out, the terrain was very easy.
@@bigzach322 Yes just buchwack west. I actually found the meadow looking for water about 2001.
You can kind of see where it is from Pleasant Garden, lack of trees gives it away.
No problems here, watching on my laptop...think you are being a little too self critical. But striving for excellence is certainly admirable. Love watching your videos ever since I left the Appalachians for the levellands. Think I'll be back soon for good, though. Gotta love it. The Emerald Forest looks a lot like the North-South Trail in the Cranberry Wilderness, one of my favorite haunts of old. Thanks, as always, for sharing your hikes. Expanding my horizons for sure!
I'm always self-critical, but it is also self-serving. I'd like to make the videos look nice so people keep watching, and sometimes I forget some of the basic errors on the trail when I'm going fast. I did love the forest, I've seen nice patches in the Great Balsam like that.
That view of the Black Mountains is amazing! I’ve seen videos from a few thru-hiker’s videos over the years. If they only knew how awesome that range in the distance is.
My next video has an even better view.
The Indians once thought it was beautiful
Wonderful, Thanks
Thanks Robert
GREAT VIDEOS ~ GOOD JOB. ~ Red Wolf o'da Smoky's
Thanks Robert
My kind of trail - love all those views. I hadn’t heard of the Pleasant Garden area - looks like a nice option to add on.
On the camera shake - it doesn’t bother me but I’m watching on my phone or tablet so it isn’t as pronounced like you mentioned.
I edit and watch on a 40" TV so I see a lot of blurriness on the edges. This looked better than my previous videos because I remembered to use the regular lens, and bright sunny skies really reduces blur. Pleasant Garden is nice but not an amazing side trip, pretty easy to get to though.
Zach .modern day john muir. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Earl
It’s You-Nay-Kuh!
Another great video. I love that area. New to making videos so thanks for the input on your advice for better quality. Maybe ill see you out on the trail soon.
The better the camera the better the video. A lot of people who love doing this or want to try and monetize their channel use GoPro, but I have no desire to buy one.
@@bigzach322 next time you go to beauty spot check out the horseback ridge section and red fork falls. It is a awesome waterfall at the base of unaka mountain.
Did not have enough time, I wanted to hike Rock Creek afterwards but decided against it. A lot of waterfalls on the west side of the crest.
Looks like a great day hike Zachary. Really like the way you identify the peaks on your hikes, very informative. Just curious, what was the music on the tail end of the video? Thanks.
Honestly I'm not sure. It's just free music from UA-cam, and I'm in the editor right now and it doesn't even list the title of the music I added.
Ever considered thru hiking the AT?
I have, but don't have the time or money to do that. I'd rather do something more remote anyways like the CDT or something shorter.