Beauty Spot and Unaka Mountain - Pisgah National Forest, NC

Apologies up front for this video being so long, I took so much nice footage of views that I didn't know where to cut it. I also made a few mistakes talking about peaks. I was around 90 degrees off when pointing out the direction of the Black Mountains. They are south-southeast, not east of Beauty Spot. I also kept referring to the Unaka Mountain Picnic Area as a campground, not sure how that got stuck in my head.
A fantastic hike on October 19 to Beauty Spot, Unaka Mountain, and Pleasant Garden along the NC/TN border. Beginning at Indian Grave Gap on NC 197/TN 395, I hiked northeast on the Appalachian Trail closely following the Pisgah and Cherokee National Forest boundaries along the state border. This was the first time I've hiked in this area. The southern Unaka Mountains between the Roan Highlands and the Nolichucky River Gorge involve a lot of driving on two-lane roads and don't have many trails on the NC side. I've also overlooked Beauty Spot since I thought it was inferior to other nearby balds. But this was a good opportunity to do a full-day hike and include some peakbagging. After an initial stout climb out of Indian Grave Gap the AT gets much easier after the first half-mile. You can bypass all of this by driving gravel TN 280 to a parking lot below Beauty Spot.
The AT emerges from the trees and gradually climbs a surprisingly long, rectangular bald that seems to keep going and going. I was impressed with the nearly 360-degree views. To the south and southwest are the Bald Mountains across the Nolichucky River. Big Bald dominates the southern view, while the craggy peaks of the Shelton Laurel region are southwest beside Meadow Creek Mountain. The southeast view is the most stunning of the Black and Great Craggy Mountain ranges. This is the first time I've gotten a view of these peaks from this angle, and the prominent sharpness of Celo Knob is awesome. You can also see the Great Balsam Mountains further south, but the glare was rough on the camera. If you make your way down towards a small clearing east of the high point there is also a great view northeast of the Roan Highlands. The future destinations of Unaka Mountain and Pleasant Garden rise high above Beauty Spot due north.
The AT drops to the road then climbs up the side of Beauty Spot Northeast. On the north side of this peak is another long overgrown bald that has good views of Unaka Mountain. After this bald the trail drops steeply to Beauty Spot Gap, paralleling TN 280 for a few hundred yards. The next section is by far the toughest climb of the hike as the AT switchbacks almost 1,000 feet to Unaka Mountain. This upper portion of this section is nicknamed the Emerald Forest, and it lives up to its name around the summit of Unaka Mountain (5,190 feet) which is covered in mature spruce and fir. The understory was barren except for green moss clinging to trunks, making it a great place to camp or get out of the sun. On the way down I took a detour to see Pleasant Garden using TN 280. A short spur road leads to Pleasant Garden, a picnic area that has been abandoned. This is a heath bald plateau on the west side of Unaka Mountain with great views east and south. After soaking in the views I made my way back to the car, while also embarking on a short peakbag through open woods of Beauty Spot Northeast, a ranked TN4500 peak. This AT section surpassed my expectations with great views and few people outside of Beauty Spot.
Hike was 14.0 miles with 3,576 feet elevation gain in 7 hours.
Hike location
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