Woody House in Cataloochee

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
7/6/2022	2.3 miles	52 minutes	157'	2.6 mph	547

Parking: 

• Rough Fork Road

Maps:

• 100 Favorite Trails of the Smokies and the Carolina Blue Ridge (for directions)
• National Geographic Great Smoky Mountains National Park East, Clingmans Dome, Cataloochee
• Gaia Gps app (with National Geographic layer)
• Hiking Trails of the Smokies (guidebook)

Directions:

• See 100 Favorite Trails map

Carolina Mountain Club Challenges

• 100 Favorite Trails #33

Our original plan was to do a full day CMC hike, but the weather was not cooperating. The forecast continues to be daily afternoon thunderstorms. We already had a dog walker booked, so we decided to take advantage of that and find something to do. On days with thunderstorms forecasted, we like to do short hikes, sometimes multiple short hikes, so we can bail when the weather gets bad.

The Woody House in Cataloochee seemed like a good bet. No dogs in the Smokies, so it's a good one to do when we have a dog walker booked. I thought we had done this before but found no blog post. We got there, and then I remember we have hiked here before! I opened up Gaia, and we had done a loop hike here, that includes this short hike. Hmm. Turns out the loop hike is another 100 Favorite Trails hike - #35 - and goes to the Woody House (but keeps going). I would have rather they put a different hike in the challenge, rather than repeating a portion of another hike.

We were there anyways, so we went off to hike. We didn't see any elk in the meadow as we drove to the trailhead. But we saw literally thousands of butterflies. Holy cow! I've read that butterflies will cluster over a puddle of urine. I think they were also clustering over elk poop. Anyways, driving down the road, there were so many of them. They were the highlight of the trip. This was a super easy hike, but very pretty and relaxing. We had another day of high humidity, so it was nice to relax and not have to push ourselves. We hiked to the Woody House (more butterfly clusters outside) and walked around inside the house before returning to the trailhead. I wished I had brought my watercolors in my pack, as there are a lot of interesting buildings here for sketching.