Hike To Joyce Kilmer

The Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest along Little Santeetlah Creek is a rare example of an old growth cove hardwood forest, an extremely diverse forest type unique to the Appalachian Mountains. Although there are many types of trees in Joyce Kilmer, dominant species include poplar, hemlock, red and white oak, basswood, beech, and sycamore. Many of the trees in Joyce Kilmer are over 400 years old. The largest rise to heights of over 100 feet and have circumferences of up to 20 feet . The Slickrock Creek basin is coated primarily by a mature second-growth cove hardwood forest, although a substantial old growth stand still exists in its upper watershed.

The Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness borders the Citico Creek Wilderness, which lies within the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee.

Information board at Joyce Kilmer Trailhead

Dedicated July 30, 1936 by the U S Forest Service

Such a beautiful forest with lots of old trees and growth

This is a very well maintained trail great for kids and the elderly

Lots of trees snapped from a storm earlier in the year

Two more trees that was clipped by high winds

Poor trees took a beating from this storm

Amazing trees growing on top of the ground .Mysteries of the wildreness !

Joyce Kilmer - Soldier , Poet and Author of " Trees "

Some of the trees in Joyce Kilmer are 400-500 years old

And trees measuring over 100 feet tall

Twin giants in the trail .... so huge so majestic

Even trees walk in this forest on the trails

Almost to the end of the hike of the man who felt trees were so important that he wrote a poem about them

Trees

I Think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth's 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 has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

- Joyce Kilmer