Benton MacKaye Trail, Gilmer County, Georgia

The Benton MacKaye Trail or BMT is a footpath nearly in length in the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

in the southeastern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and is blazed by a white diamond, 5″ across by 7″ tall. The hiking trail was created and is maintained by the Benton MacKaye Trail Association, and it is named for

Benton MacKaye Benton MacKaye ( ; March 6, 1879 – December 11, 1975) was an American forester, planner and conservationist. He was born in Stamford, Connecticut; his father was actor and dramatist Steele MacKaye. After studying forestry at Harvard Unive ...

, the Massachusetts forester and regional planner who first had the idea for the

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail (also called the A.T.), is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian Tr ...

in 1921. The BMT runs from

Springer Mountain Springer Mountain is a mountain located in the Chattahoochee National Forest on the border of Fannin and Gilmer counties. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Georgia, the mountain has an elevation of about . Springer Mountain serves ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

(sharing the southern terminus of the

) to Big Creek in the

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an American national park in the southeastern United States, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, whi ...

. The trail passes through seven United States

Wilderness Areas Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...

, while traversing three states (Georgia,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

and

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

). The lowest elevation (765 ft) on the BMT occurs at the crossing of the

Hiwassee River The Hiwassee River has its headwaters on the north slope of Rocky Mountain in Towns County in the northern area of the State of Georgia. It flows northward into North Carolina before turning westward into Tennessee, flowing into the Tennessee Riv ...

in Tennessee. The highest elevation is the summit of Mt. Sterling in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. The trail crosses various trout rivers along its path including Shallowford Bridge and the Swinging Bridge over the

Toccoa River The Toccoa River and Ocoee River are the names in use for a single river that flows northwestward through the southern Appalachian Mountains of the southeastern United States. It is a tributary of the Hiwassee River, which it joins in Polk Coun ...

in Georgia, the Ocoee, Hiwassee, Upper Bald and Tellico rivers in Tennessee, and the

Little Tennessee River The Little Tennessee River is a tributary of the Tennessee River that flows through the Blue Ridge Mountains from Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, into North Carolina, and then into Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. It drains portio ...

in North Carolina. It also crosses Eagle, Hazel, Forney, Noland and Big creeks in the Smokies, along with

Fontana Dam Fontana Dam is a hydroelectric dam on the Little Tennessee River in Swain and Graham counties, North Carolina, United States. The dam is operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, which built the dam in the early 1940s to satisfy the skyrocketin ...

and the

Oconaluftee River The Oconaluftee River drains the south-central Oconaluftee valley of the Great Smoky Mountains in Western North Carolina before emptying into the Tuckasegee River. The river flows through the Qualla Boundary, a federal land trust that serves as ...

References

*Benton MacKaye Trail Association (2006)
"Benton MacKaye Trail Association"
Retrieved March 2, 2006. *Homan, Tim. 2004. ''Hiking the Benton MacKaye Trail: A guide to the Benton MacKaye trail from Georgia's Springer Mountain to Tennessee's Ocoee River''. Peachtree Publishers. .

External links

Benton MacKaye Trail Association Official Site
��includes a map
Trail photos
Hiking trails in Georgia (U.S. state) Hiking trails in Tennessee Hiking trails in North Carolina Long-distance trails in the United States Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest Nantahala National Forest {{US-trail-stub