Great Smoky Mountains National Park Just Revamped an 8-mile Trail That Leads to Its Tallest Waterfall

The Ramsey Cascades Trail is now fully reopened following a three-year-long restoration.

By Alison Fox Alison Fox

Alison Fox is a Travel + Leisure contributor. She has also written for Parents.com, The Wall Street Journal, and amNewYork. When she’s not in New York City, she can be found at the beach or on the slopes. Travel + Leisure Editorial Guidelines Published on November 19, 2024

Close The Great Smoky Mountains National Park Deep Creek entrance sign. Photo:

Marje/Getty Images

It just got easier to hike in Great Smoky Mountains National Park thanks to an extensive renovation of a popular trail that leads to the park’s tallest waterfall. 

The Ramsey Cascades Trail is now fully reopened following a three-year-long restoration, according to the National Park Service (NPS). The trail leads visitors on an 8-mile-long roundtrip hike all the way to the 105-foot-tall Ramsey Cascades waterfall, passing through a hardwood forest and ascending more than 2,000 feet in elevation.

Ramsey Cascades from inside Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

LaserLens/Getty Images

The trail was restored with its original design in mind, the NPS noted, using natural materials and hand tools. The trail now features a pair of new footlog bridges, new decking and handrails on a hiker bridge, 151 trail drains, more than 600 new steps to help with safety and erosion control, and the regrading of 2.5 miles of trail surface. Officials also removed tripping hazards, including roots and rocks, and pruned overgrown vegetation in the trail corridor.

Officials had closed the trail on weekdays earlier this year as part of the restoration, which first started in 2022. The project was aided by funding from the Friends of the Smokies Trails Forever Endowment.

“We are honored to invest in this legacy work that is about so much more than creating a sustainable trail,” Dana Soehn, the president and chief executive officer of the Friends of the Smokies, said in a statement. “This work results in a lasting invitation for generations to come to experience the wonders of these woods along the Ramsey Prong just as we can today.”

Next year, the NPS said it will begin a planned two-year-long restoration of the Bull Head Trail to Mount Le Conte.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which sits between both North Carolina and Tennessee, was the most-visited national park in the country in 2023. In total, the park features more than 500,000 acres, 10 developed campgrounds, and more than 100 backcountry campsites.