Meigs Mountain Trail

Meigs Mountain Trail
The Meigs Mountain Trail at the Curry Mountain Trail junction
Length	6 mi (10 km)
Location	Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee, United States
Trailheads	Junction with the Jakes Creek Trail just south of Elkmont Junction with the Lumber Ridge Trail and Meigs Creek Trail at Buckhorn Gap
Use	Hiking
Elevation
Highest point	Near Campsite 19, 2,880 ft (880 m)
Lowest point	Buckhorn Gap, 2,400 ft (730 m)
Hiking details
Trail difficulty	Moderate
Season	Open year-round
Hazards	Multiple stream crossings

The Meigs Mountain Trail is an American hiking trail in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park of Sevier County, Tennessee. The trail traverses the northern slopes of Meigs Mountain in the northwest section of the park, connecting Jakes Creek in the Elkmont area with Lumber Ridge in the Tremont area. The Meigs Mountain Trail, when joined with the 4.1-mile (6.6 km) Lumber Ridge Trail and the first 0.4 miles (0.64 km) of the Jakes Creek Trail, is part of a 10.5-mile (16.9 km) continuous path connecting the Appalachian Club section of Elkmont with the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont. In the early 20th century, the logging communities that formed at Elkmont and Tremont branched out across the relatively broad northern slopes of Meigs Mountain. Other than a crude mountain cemetery, the occasional detritus, and a few rock walls, however, very little remains of the mountain's former inhabitants.

The nearest parking lot for the Meigs Mountain Trail is the Jakes Creek Trailhead parking lot, located at the end of Elkmont Road. The Curry Mountain Trail and the Meigs Creek Trail both connect the Meigs Mountain Trail to Little River Road.

Meigs Mountain is a ridge stretching for roughly 5 miles (8.0 km) between Blanket Creek to the east and the Middle Prong of Little River to the west. To the southeast, Meigs Mountain is flanked by Blanket Mountain, which culminates in a prominent 4,607-foot (1,404 m) summit. To the north, three low mountains are "wedged" between Meigs Mountain and the Little River Gorge— Curry She Mountain to the northeast, Curry He Mountain to the north, and Lumber Ridge to the northwest. The 3,982-foot (1,214 m) summit of Meigs Mountain is located on the mountain's eastern end, with the elevation decreasing gradually to the west and sharply to the north and south.

Geologically, Meigs Mountain is composed of Precambrian rocks (primarily sandstone) of the Ocoee Supergroup, formed from ancient ocean sediments nearly a billion years ago. Rock exposures are not very common along the Meigs Mountain Trail, although the trail crosses multiple steambeds littered with rocks and small boulders. The streams that drain Meigs Mountain are part of the Little River watershed.