Fork Mountain Trail Map

"Stick A Fork In Me, I'm Done"

GPS Coordinates: 35.373662, -82.936184 (Fork Mountain Trailhead @ NC-215)

GPS Coordinates: 35.33927, -82.86912 (Ivestor Gap Trail Junction)

Album Direction-Of-Travel: Westbound

Highlights: Views of West Fork Pigeon Gorge, Extreme Solitude, Shining Rock Wilderness

Length: 6.5 miles

Petzoldt Rating: 13.70 (W to E); 8.50(W to E)

Difficulty: EXTREME (W to E); CHALLENGING (E to W)

Total Elevation Gain: 3,600' (W to E); 1,000' (E to W)

Elevation Gain/Mile: 554'/mile (W to E); 154'/mile (E to W)

Min. Elevation: 3,120'

Max. Elevation: 5,730'

Blaze Color: NONE

See Following Trip Reports for more info:

Fork Mountain Trail via Black Balsam Knob

Connecting Trails:

Ivestor Gap Trail (#101)

Fork Mountain Trail (#109)

Fork Mountain Trail Map
Route map of the Fork Mountain Trail as tracked by the Gaia GPS app and depicted a la Google Earth...
Fork Mountain Trail Map
Route map of the Fork Mountain Trail as tracked by the Gaia GPS app...
Fork Mountain/Ivestor Gap Trail Junction -- 5,730'
A simple wooden sign, strangely pointed to only greet northbound hikers on the Ivestor Gap Trail, marks the northern terminus of the Fork Mountain Trail...
Fork Mountain/Ivestor Gap Trail Junction -- 5,730'
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,730'
The Fork Mountain Trail as it looks dropping into the woods from the Ivestor Gap Trail...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,720'
Perhaps a hundred feet down the trial a very weathered wooden sign announced the trail is now entering the Shining Rock Wilderness...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,700'
The first short section of the Fork Mountain Trail is surprisingly flat...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,670'
As you can see by the grass growing in the path, this trail is much less traveled than most in the District...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,650'
Continuing the easy walk along the ridge...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,630'
For the most part the surrounding trees hide the view to the north but in a few spots, like this, there's a clear glimpse...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,630'
Looking up at the round summit of Grassy Cove Top (6,040')...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,600'
The trees close back in...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,580'
Getting a little rockier...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,570'
This decent-sized opening provides the trails best views of the neighboring Shining Rock Ridge...again that's Grassy Cove Top (6,040')...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,570'
You can even get a partial look at Tennent Mountain (6,040') from this spot...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,550'
An old rusted cable...one of the more common man made obstacles found in Pisgah...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,520'
Looking up through the high-elevation forest alongside the trail...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,500'
In a few spots the ceiling gets a bit low...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,470'
The trail as it begins to curve from the north to the south side of the ridge...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,450'
The Fork Mountain Trail makes its initial crossing from the north to the south side of the ridge across this beautiful open meadow...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,450'
Shrubs and trees obscured much of the view from the meadow but Sam Knob (6,050') still managed to tower above them...oh, and that's Mount Hardy (6,120') peeking out from behind the bush on the right...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,450'
Looking back across the open meadow as the trail continues north...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,440'
Back into the trees again...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,440'
Without warning, just a few hundred feet northbound from the meadow the trees part to the left and reveal this incredible view looking up the head of the West Fork Pigeon River Gorge...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,440'
A panoramic shot of the amazing viewpoint north of the meadow. Sam Knob is on the left (6,050'), with Mount Hardy (6,120') in the distant center, and the green wall of neighboring Fork Ridge topped by Green Knob (5,892') extending to the right...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,420'
Continuing along the leafy ridge...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,380'
The trail is now into the low-5,000's in elevation, meaning that the high elevation conifers now have all but disappeared...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,350'
A few laurels start to fill in the understory now...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,250'
At this point, about 1.7-miles after departing the Ivestor Gap Trail, the path begins a rather steep drop to the narrow ridge separating Fork Mountain from Birdstand Mountain...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,200'
Ah, the ferns are fading...another sure sign of autumn's imminent arrival...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,140'
The ridge between Fork Mountain and Birdstand is very narrow in places...if you look close in this shot you can see it dropping away from both sides of the trail...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,140'
Where the ridge widens a bit, laurels start building their tunnels...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,150'
Things began to get tight again as the trail rounds a small knob along the ridge between Fork Mountain and Birdstand...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,120'
A small stand of dead hemlocks offers up a brief glimpse of the Shining Rock Ridge, rising nearly 1,000-feet above to the north...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,080'
This part of the Fork Mountain Trail, as it approaches Birdstand Mountain from the south, is the roughest stretch yet encountered...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,050'
Things smooth out again a bit as the trail drops to the narrow gap just south of Birdstand...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,020'
The Fork Mountain Trail at the narrow but thickly wooded gap just to the south of Birdstand Mountain...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,050'
The trail as it begins its climb of Birdstand from the south...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,080'
Make sure to watch for a short side path, leading to a must-see view, just south of Birdstand...the spur in question is on the left of the trail, along this steep rocky stretch, climbing the low knob on the south end of the summit ridge...
Birdstand Overlook -- 5,120'
I cannot even begin to describe the magnitude of what you are seeing here. Over 1,500-feet below is the floor of the West Fork Pigeon River Gorge...while rising a half-mile above it on either side, Sam Knob and Fork Ridge never look more massive. I've seen a lot of incredible views in the North Carolina Mountains...few have stunned me more than this one...
Birdstand Overlook -- 5,120'
Not many folks get to see Sam Knob from this angle...up its incredibly steep north face. To the right the silver ribbon of the West Fork Pigeon River can be seen tumbling down the gorge nearly a vertical half-mile below...
Birdstand Overlook -- 5,120'
A zoomed shot of the other half of the view shows the massive bulk of neighboring Fork Ridge culminating with Green Knob at 5,892'. The high, dark summit in the center distance is Mount Hardy (6,120')...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,140'
Back on the trail as it crosses the low knob just to the south of the Birdstand Mountain summit...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,120'
The Fork Mountain Trail doesn't actually pass directly over the summit of Birdstand Mountain, which is fine as by all accounts there's not much to see from up there. Rather, it begins heading downhill at an easy grade around the east side of the summit cone...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,100'
Looking up towards the summit of Birdstand Mountain as the trail passes immediately below and to the east of it...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,080'
Adding to all this beauty...odds are you won't have passed one single soul thus far in the 2.5-miles you've so far traveled on the Fork Mountain Trail...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,080'
The incredible forest scene to the left as the trail rounds Birdstand Mountain...
Fork Mountain Trail -- 5,060'
Beginning to drop a bit more significantly now...