Joyce kilmer memorial forest

As one of the most popular areas for hiking within the Cheoah Ranger District, Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest can also lay claim to being a top hiking destinations across all of southwestern NC. This area contains an impressive remnant of virgin forest, representative of the vast Eastern forests that used to stretch from the Atlantic to the Mississippi and beyond.

Exceptionally large trees of more than species grow in the rich cove environment, protecting the headwaters of the rushing stream as it heads toward the blue-green depths of Santeetlah Lake. While a verdant carpet of mosses, ferns, and wildflowers rise from the forest floor and logs of fallen giants past, the largest living trees rise to heights of well over ft with circumferences of up to 20 ft.

Some of them are estimated to be over years old.

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It remains a cherished and unique piece of Old Growth forest among the Southern Appalachian mountains. While much of the forest around Western North Carolina was once logged and has since recovered or remains under active management, this area was spared the logger's axe. Or chainsaw, as it were. It is one of the largest contiguous tracts of old growth forests in the Eastern US.

The Little Santeetlah Creek basin, which now contains Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, was being eyed by timber companies as they ate up the forest resources in all the surrounding valleys by the early 's. A rail line built along the Little Tennessee river was used to extract the high quality timber. Some say a mysterious force kept the lumbermen from destroying the forest around Little Santeetlah Creek.

It might've been that the exceptionally large, healthy trees filled the lumbermen with awe. Or a variety of practical reasons, such as the flooding of the rail lines by Santeetlah Lake, may have contributed to the saving of the forest. But ultimately, a large tract of forest on Little Santeetlah Creek was left alone, despite being owned by several different parties interested in reaping the monetary value of the timber.

In , the The Memorial Forest became a part of the larger Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock wilderness, which covers over 17, acres of land in the area. Most hikers stay on the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Trail.