November leaf color report for Great Smoky Mountains: Greenbrier

The leaf colors are bright and in peak season in the Greenbrier section of the Great Smoky Mountains national park just outside of Gatlinburg Tennessee.

Greenbrier is known for being one of the quieter sections of the Great Smoky Mountains national park with outstanding hiking, great fishing and a picnic area and picnic pavilion.

We just checked 2 hiking trails to see how the fall colors are doing in this section of the Great Smoky Mountains national park and we were not disappointed and neither will you.

Both hiking trails begin at the Ramsey Cascades Trailhead which is well marked. When you enter Greenbrier you might think all the colorful fall leaves are gone but keep on driving, it gets better and better the closer you get to the trailhead.

From the trailhead you can to go to the Ramsey Cascades Falls - an 8 mile round trip or the Pinnacles Man Way a 7 mile round trip. Remember you don't have to hike all the way to enjoy the scenery!

Both trails first cross the river where you should take pictures from the bridge. By now you already have seen bright yellows and reds and a few orange leaves in the trees. Plenty of light and dark green so we have a while before this section will flame out.

The hiking trial was made on an old logging roadbed at this point and gently keeps climbing up along the river. On your left hand side there are gigantic boulders and sheer rock cliffs, even a semi cave at once point.

Stop and listen to the sounds of the river and when the wind blows the leaves falling from the trees. A perfect spot to do this is there is a log bench on the right hand side by the roaring river.

At the 1-1/2 mile mark there is a small sign on the left of the trail showing that the Ramsey Cascades trail is straight ahead. This unmarked trail is the Greenbriers Pinnacles trail.

The Pinnacles trail is a non maintained trail where you will have to climb over a few logs as you work your way up almost 2,000 feet in and works its way up to some fantastic overlooks and the top of the mountain where you will find the ruins of an old fire tower.

Since this is a rarely used trail more often than not you will see no one on the way up and down this hiking trail and there are great fall colors and the ability to look across at other mountains fall colors.

Here you will walk by rocks walls, cross a small stream, pass by some large old tress and through some rhododendron and mountain laurel lined sections of the trail. Picture below was taken on this trail.

Ramsey Cascades is also about a 2,000 foot climb with no scenic overlooks but you get to cross a roaring river on log bridges where you will also see a stunning rock wall by one of the log bridges with a beautiful pool along the riverside.

Another special feature of this trail beside the fantastic cascade waterfall at the top of the trail is the huge hemlock trees and poplar trees - some of the larger and older trees in the Great Smoky Mountains national park. Take a picture with a person next to the tree so you can get the scale of how large the trees are.

The fall colors on this trail come and go. In some areas of the trail we have gone pasty peak and others have yet to come out in full color. The shot below from the trail shows one of the peak fall color sections.

Even though these hiking trails are not exceptional long they are fairly strenuous.

You will also find that you will go through some real changes in temperature getting both hotter and cooler are you go up in elevation so dress in layers. Ramsey Cascades even the summer is much cooler than the trail is.

Come on out whole the fall colors are still great in the Greenbrier are right next to Gatlinburg Tennessee and just minute from more than 150 cabin rentals by American Mountain Rentals.

Information on the Greenbrier Section of the National Park