15 Indian Flats Falls

The easy walk along Lynn Camp Prong is the quintessential Smokies stream hike. Many photographs taken along this stream show up on postcards or prints sold in area stores. In spring the trail sides explode with trilliums, dwarf irises, jacks-in-the pulpit, violets, anemones, and seemingly countless other wildflowers. In October the autumn foliage rivals any in the park. With the cascading Lynn Camp Prong as your escort and a scenic waterfall as your destination, this hike is a great one any time of year, not just in spring and fall.

Start: Middle Prong trailhead in the Tremont section of the park

Distance: 8.0 miles out and back

Hiking time: About 4 hours—day hike

Difficulty: Moderate

Trail surface: Old forest road

Best seasons: Spring for the wildflowers, Oct for autumn foliage

Other trail users: Equestrians

Maps: Thunderhead Mountain USGS quad; Trails Illustrated #229 Great Smoky Mountains; Trails Illustrated #316 Cades Cove Elkmont

Special considerations: The last 3.0 miles of Tremont Road are closed in winter. An excellent option is to bring a bicycle for the closed road section and make this a hike-bike combination trip. Bicycles are not allowed on the hiking trail.

Other: Ample parking is usually available at the trailhead, but on busy weekends you may have to park some distance back from the gate. The closest restrooms are back at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont office. If the institute is not open, the next closest facilities in the park are at Cades Cove Picnic Area. The town of Townsend has closer facilities.

Finding the trailhead: The hike begins at the end of Tremont Road. Head southwest from the Townsend Y (junction of Little River Road and TN 73) toward Cades Cove, and at 0.2 mile turn left onto Tremont Road. The road passes Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont, located on the left at 2.0 miles, and then changes to gravel. Drive 3.0 miles on the gravel portion to the end of the road at a traffic circle. GPS: N35 37.113' / W83 40.188'

The Hike

The trail is a continuation of the gravel road and follows an old railroad grade built by Little River Lumber Company in the early twentieth century. After crossing Lynn Camp Prong on a sturdy bridge, stay to the left on the main gravel road. Unless you’re like Forrest Gump and you don’t mind stepping in horse pies, it’s a good idea to keep an eye at your feet as well as the trail ahead. At about 0.5 mile the road makes a wide swing to the left at the largest set of cascades on Lynn Camp Prong. The trail continues alongside the creek and comes out near the top of the uppermost drop. Photographers really enjoy this stretch of the creek.

Autumn along Lynn Camp Prong.

The road continues alongside the creek another 3.0 miles to a bridge over Indian Flats Prong, just above where that creek joins Lynn Camp Prong. (Back at the trailhead, Thunderhead Prong joins Lynn Camp Prong to form Middle Prong Little River.) Beyond the bridge, the grade increases. You make a couple of broad left-hand switchbacks and then a sharp right-hand switchback. Then you come to the first sharp left-hand switchback. Look here for an obvious side path to the right heading toward the creek. The path leads a few hundred feet over rocks and roots to the base of the uppermost drop of Indian Flats Falls.

The waterfall consists of four separate drops, each of them scenic and worthy of a photograph. However, only the uppermost fall is easily accessible. If you want to see the lower drops, you have to scramble down the makeshift paths, over and under rhododendron thickets. Resist the urge to do this, for both your safety and to keep from destroying the vegetation and soil along the creek bank.

Miles and Directions

0.0Start behind the gate and cross Lynn Camp Prong on the bridge. Stay to the left beyond the bridge, on the main road.

0.5Lynn Camp Prong Cascades.

2.3Junction with Panther Creek Trail on the left. Continue straight on the main road.

3.5Bridge over Indian Flats Prong.

3.9Follow the obvious side path to Indian Flats Falls on the right.

4.0Arrive at Indian Flats Falls. Return the way you came.

8.0Arrive back at trailhead.

Options: Two other hikes in this book use portions of Middle Prong Trail and pass by Indian Flats Falls: Hike 12 and Hike 16.

Autumn leaves collect in a pool along Lynn Camp Prong.

Floating Logs

About half a mile into Middle Prong Trail, you pass by a section of scenic cascades on Lynn Camp Prong. A short distance upstream is the site of an old logging splash dam. Middle Prong Trail follows the course of an old logging railroad, but before railroads were built, loggers sometimes floated logs out of the mountains. Of course, a stream like Lynn Camp Prong is hardly big enough to float a log, so the loggers built dams across the streams to build up a pond, into which they stored logs hauled in from the surrounding slopes. When the pond was full, the loggers opened a release gate and the flood of water and logs rushed downstream. Splash dams were used with limited success in the Smokies. The rough terrain was often not conducive to floating logs, even in a flood of water, and loggers often spent a great deal of time freeing log jams. Splash damming was extremely damaging to the streamside environment and some areas of the park still carry scars from the practice.