Hiking in
Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest
A day trip from any Smoky Mountain Tourist City can find you in one of the only remaining
virgin forests in the Southeast. Walk among magnificent yellow poplar trees
measuring 15 to 20 feet in circumference and standing
over 100 feet tall. Pack and
enjoy a picnic lunch before or after you stroll the manicured footpaths. The path's 2 mile length makes it a
pleasurable walk for the entire family.
The United States Congress designated the Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock
Wilderness in 1975 and it now has a total of 17,394 acres. North Carolina
contains approximately 13,562 acres. Tennessee contains approximately 3,832
acres. It is managed by the Forest Service.
Allow yourself time to slow down and stand in
nature's mighty gifts as you remember the words of the poet Joyce Kilmer.
TREES
I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree a tree whose hungry mouth is prest against the earth's sweet flowing breast.
A tree that looks at god all day and lifts her leafy arms to pray a tree that may in summer wear a nest of robins in her hair.
Upon whose bosom snow as lain who intimately lives with rain poems are made by fools like me but only GOD can make a tree.
Joyce Kilmer
Little Santeetlah Creek at the beginning
of Trailhead
The Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness is bordered by and the Citico Creek Wilderness to the west.