46 Maddron Bald and Hen Wallow Falls

For people who like trees, this may be the best backpacking trip in the park. Much of the hike passes through old-growth forest, including what many people believe to be the finest “virgin” woods in the park, at Albright Grove. Throw in a high and pretty waterfall, abundant spring wildflowers, and a heath bald, and you have a grand adventure ahead of you.

(See map for Hike 42: Albright Grove.)

Start: Snake Den Ridge trailhead at Cosby Campground

Distance: 18.1-mile loop

Hiking time: About 10 hours—tough day hike, overnighter, or 2-nighter

Difficulty: Strenuous

Trail surface: Forest trails and old forest road

Best season: Spring for the wildflowers

Other trail users: The first 4.9 miles is open to equestrians; the remainder of the hike is for hikers only.

Maps: Hartford, Luftee Knob, Mount Guyot, and Jones Cove USGS quads; Trails Illustrated #229 Great Smoky Mountains; Trails Illustrated #317 Clingmans Dome Cataloochee

Other: The hiker parking lot is plenty large enough most of the time. If it’s full, picnic area parking is right behind it. Restrooms are available at the picnic area.

Finding the trailhead: From the US 321 and TN 32 junction in Cosby, drive 1.2 miles and turn right at the sign for Cosby Campground. Follow this road 2.1 miles to the campground registration building. Drive past the building and turn left to loop back to the hiker parking area (GPS: N35 45.353' / W83 12.496'). The hike begins by following the road into the campground.

The Hike

From the parking area, walk through the campground to Campsite B51. Snake Den Ridge Trail enters the forest directly opposite the campsite and climbs gradually along an old roadbed. Soon you pass Cosby Horse Trail, which comes in from the left. The horse trail serves as a connector to Low Gap Trail. Stay to the right and continue climbing along the old roadbed. You soon pass an old graveyard on the right and shortly afterward reach an old turnaround. A side path on the right leads a few feet to a concrete slab and an overlook of Rock Creek. Look for clumps of showy orchis in April.

A few feet from the side path, Snake Den Ridge Trail continues past three boulders on the right and is now a bona fide trail. Hike through a scenic forest of hemlock and basswood with an understory of rhododendron, and soon cross Rock Creek on a foot log. The forest continues to be picturesque, with good-size trees, although many of the large hemlocks are dead. There’s yellow poplar (tulip tree), silverbell, and maple. Spring wildflowers carpet the ground.

About a mile above the Rock Creek crossing, you come to a crossing of Inadu Creek above a small waterfall. Inadu means “snake” in Cherokee, and it’s one of the few Native American names retained in the park. As you leave the creek and begin ascending the ridge, the vegetation changes to plants more adapted to a drier environment—pine, galax, trailing arbutus, and mountain laurel. Climbing on, you pass through a moist cove with numerous painted trilliums in spring. Beyond here, you climb a short knife ridge with nearly 360-degree views. Mount Cammerer is prominent in the view toward the east. Soon you enter a darker, cooler forest and begin to see red spruce. As you climb higher, you pass through a ground cover of spring beauty with patches of trout lily, both blooming in April.

The junction with Maddron Bald Trail is not far ahead. From the junction, Snake Den Ridge Trail continues another 0.7 mile to the Appalachian Trail (AT), but your hike turns right (west) and follows Maddron Bald Trail. Enjoy the first significant downhill section of the hike as you travel through a dark spruce forest to Maddron Bald. Although the vegetation on the bald restricts the vistas somewhat, the views are great to the south and west.

Descending from the bald, you pass through a hemlock forest and then arrive at Campsite 29 beside Otter Creek. This is your first night’s stay on a two-night backpack or your only stay on an overnighter. The site sits in a mossy boulder field—not the best terrain for camping, but pleasant enough. It isn’t private, since the trail encircles the site, but it’s far enough from any trailhead that you’re not likely to have any walk-by traffic unless you hang out at the site in the middle of the day.

Pressing on from the campsite, the trail weaves a bit and then swings around a ridge separating the Otter Creek and Copperhead Branch drainages. An obvious side path on the right leads a few yards to a wonderful view. You soon cross Copperhead Branch and then Indian Camp Creek at a photogenic cascade amongst huge, mossy boulders. Farther down you cross a side branch, and then cross Indian Camp Creek again. Fifty yards farther, cross Copperhead Branch once again. Now you pass between two giant hemlock trees, one on each side of the trail, and soon begin a high parallel course above Otter Creek.

Maddron Bald Trail foot log over Indian Camp Creek.

Here you pass what must be the oddest-looking stump in the Smokies. It’s huge—so huge that four people could pack themselves into the hollow center. It has several rhododendron trees growing all over it and a hemlock or two. Shortly beyond the stump, you cross Indian Camp Creek once more and arrive at the upper junction with Albright Grove Loop Trail. It’s 0.3 mile from here on Maddron Bald Trail to the lower junction with Albright Grove Loop Trail, but this hike turns left and follows Albright Grove Loop Trail for 0.7 mile through the old-growth forest (The destination for Hike 42 is Albright Grove.)

Rejoin Maddron Bald Trail at the lower end of Albright Grove Loop Trail, and in 0.1 mile you cross Indian Camp Creek for the final time, on a foot log. For the next 0.5 mile, the trail passes through an old-growth forest featuring several large trees. You exit the old growth onto an old roadbed and follow it down to the junction with Old Settlers Trail and Gabes Mountain Trail in a small clearing.

Your hike follows the Gabes Mountain Trail to the right (south) and begins climbing again, though not too steeply. For the next 1.8 miles, you cross over small creek branches and hike through a beautiful forest with yellow poplar, buckeye, beech, Fraser magnolia, and silverbell. At your feet are numerous species of spring wildflowers, and you pass huge American chestnut stumps.

Campsite 34 is situated right beside Greenbrier Creek. The forest here is pleasantly open, and the tent sites have a little more privacy than Campsite 29. This is your home on the second night of a two-night backpack.

For the most part, you’re finished climbing once you leave Campsite 34. There’s some gradual ascending, but nothing significant. The forest remains outstanding, and there are scenic stream crossings.

At the third crossing of Lower Falling Branch, you can’t help but realize that you’re looking out over the top of Hen Wallow Falls. Hiking in this direction, you might be tempted to try a scramble down the bank for a close view, but save your energy. A short distance farther a side path to the left leads safely (but steeply) to the base of the falls. Lower Falling Branch at this point is a continuous set of cascades and drops. The side path comes out at the base of the uppermost drop, which is about 50 feet high. No path leads to views of the lower drops, and any attempt to get down there would risk life and limb.

Back on the main trail, you can take heart that the huffing and puffing is all behind you. Except for a few minor humps, it’s downhill from here. As you near the end, the trail forks, with the left fork leading 0.3 mile to the picnic area and the right fork going 0.3 mile to the campground at site A44. Take the left fork and come out on Cosby Road. Turn right and follow the road back to the parking area.

Miles and Directions

0.0Start by walking along the road into the Cosby Campground and follow the campsite markers to site B51.

0.3Snake Den Ridge Trail begins on the right side of the road, directly opposite campsite B51.

4.9Turn right (west) onto Maddron Bald Trail.

6.5Campsite 29.

9.0Come to the upper junction with Albright Grove Trail. Turn left onto it.

9.7Come to the lower junction of Albright Grove Trail with Maddron Bald Trail. Continue straight ahead on Maddron Bald Trail.

10.3Trail begins following old roadbed.

11.4Junction with Old Settlers and Gabes Mountain Trails. Turn right (south) on Gabes Mountain Trail.

13.2Campsite 34.

15.9Side path on the left leads to Hen Wallow Falls.

18.0Junction with Cosby Road. Turn right and walk on the road back to parking area.

18.1Arrive back at parking area.

A Hell of a Place

Maddron Bald is a lot different from some other balds in the Smokies, such as Gregory Bald and Andrews Bald. Those are grassy balds, characterized by a ground cover of mountain oat grass, a few shrubs such as blueberry, azalea, a few Catawba rhododendron, and several different species of herbs. Grassy balds are mostly open. Maddron Bald, on the other hand, is totally grown over. Maddron is a heath bald, characterized by a dense covering of shrubs in the heath family, such as Catawba rhododendron, Carolina rhododendron, mountain laurel, and sand myrtle. Like the grassy balds, large trees don’t grow on heath balds, and from a distance, they appear smooth, giving them the local name of laurel slicks.

Standing in the middle of Maddron Bald, however, it’s plain to see that a heath bald is anything but slick. Just imagine how difficult it would be to walk through one without a trail. This trait has led to another local name for heath balds: laurel hells. More than 400 heath balds occur in the Smokies, ranging from tiny patches to over 50 acres in size. Some of the more notable ones accessed by hikes in this guidebook include the summit of Brushy Mountain (Hike 40) and areas on the summit of Mount LeConte and its access trails (Hikes 31, 35, and 37). You can also view a large number of heath balds from the higher elevations of Newfound Gap Road.