Mount Kephart

Mount Kephart
Mt. Kephart, looking west from Charlies Bunion
Highest point
Elevation	6,217 ft (1,895 m)
Prominence	660 ft (200 m)
Coordinates	35°37′52″N 83°23′24″W / 35.630988°N 83.389906°W / 35.630988; -83.389906Coordinates: 35°37′52″N 83°23′24″W / 35.630988°N 83.389906°W / 35.630988; -83.389906
Geography
Location	Sevier County, Tennessee / Swain County, North Carolina, U.S.
Parent range	Great Smoky Mountains
Topo map	USGS Mount Le Conte
Climbing
Easiest route	Appalachian Trail + Boulevard Trail + Jumpoff Trail

Mount Kephart is a mountain in the central Great Smoky Mountains, located in the Southeastern United States. The Appalachian Trail crosses the mountain's south slope, making it a key destination for thru-hikers. The Jumpoff, a 1,000-foot (300 m) cliff on the northeast side of the mountain, allows for spectacular views of the central and eastern Smokies. A stand of Southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest coats the mountain's upper elevations.

Mount Kephart is the 22nd highest mountain in the eastern U.S., and the 7th-highest mountain in the state of Tennessee. Its topographic prominence is drastically reduced, however, due to the mountain's close proximity to two higher neighbors, Clingmans Dome and Mount Le Conte.

Like much of the Smokies crest, Mount Kephart lies on the Tennessee-North Carolina border, in Sevier County, Tennessee and Swain County, North Carolina. The mountain rises nearly 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above its northern base at Porters Flat, and approximately 3,400 feet (1,000 m) above its southern base along the Oconaluftee headwaters. Newfound Gap, at just over 5,000 feet (1,500 m), divides Mount Kephart from Fork Ridge (Mt. Collins) to the west. The gap is traversed by U.S. Highway 441, the only paved road crossing the Great Smoky Mountains National Park from north to south.

Mount Kephart is composed of a type of slate and metasiltstone known as Anakeesta Formation, which is common throughout the central Smokies. This type of rock is exposed at Charlies Bunion, just to the northeast of Kephart.

The Anakeesta Formation rocks are part of the Ocoee Supergroup, formed from ocean sediments nearly a billion years ago. The mountain itself was formed 200 million years ago when the African and North American plates collided and thrust the rock upward during the Appalachian orogeny.