Ask anyone in Cosby which hike they’d send a visitor on in the last ten days of October and you’ll hear the same answer: Mt. Cammerer. The stone fire tower on its summit sits right at the elevation where the color is peaking this week, and the trail to it starts a few minutes from our cabins. It’s a long day. It’s also the best day you can spend in this corner of the park.
Why late October is the week to go
The Smokies don’t turn all at once. Color starts on the high ridges in late September and works its way downhill over several weeks, and the National Park Service notes that the most brilliant displays below 4,000 feet usually land between mid-October and early November. The Low Gap Trail climbs from roughly 2,500 feet at Cosby Campground to just under 5,000 at the tower, so on one walk you pass through the whole show: sugar maple and scarlet oak at the bottom, yellow birch and beech up top, and a long stretch in between where everything is lit at once.
This year the timing is a little later than usual. A warm September and a warm start to October kept the lower woods green longer than normal, and local meteorologists said last week that cooler nights were finally on the way to push the color along. We’ve been watching the ridgeline above Cosby turn day by day. If you’re here in the next week or so, you’re catching the mid-elevations close to their best.
The tower itself
Most fire towers in the Southern Appalachians are steel frames with a cab on top. Cammerer’s isn’t. It’s a squat, two-story octagon of stone and timber built in the Western lookout style, and the Civilian Conservation Corps put it together between 1937 and 1939 using rock quarried on site. It was named for Arno Cammerer, the Park Service director who helped push the Smokies into existence as a national park.
The tower only served its original purpose for a couple of decades. Once the park shifted to spotting fires from aircraft in the 1960s it was abandoned, and by the 1980s it had deteriorated badly enough that demolition was on the table. A 1995 restoration brought it back, and according to the National Historic Lookout Register, that project was the first big effort by the group that became Friends of the Smokies. Today you can walk the catwalk around the outside, lean on the railing, and look down the Pigeon River gorge into North Carolina on one side and across the Cosby valley on the other.
LOCAL NOTE
Old-timers around here still call it White Rock, which was the mountain’s name before the park renamed it. The summit is a bare rock outcrop, and on a clear morning you can pick out the pale stone from the valley floor along Highway 32.
The route from Cosby
There are a few ways up Cammerer, but the one that starts closest to us is the Low Gap Trail from Cosby Campground, which runs about 5.2 miles one way, or 11.2 miles round trip. Figure on 6 to 8 hours of hiking with time at the top.
Miles 0 to 2.9: Low Gap Trail
The trailhead is signed at the back of the campground near the hiker parking area. The path follows Cosby Creek for a while before it starts climbing in earnest, and it climbs for almost three miles straight with hardly a flat stretch. This is the hardest part of the day. Take it slow, and notice how the forest changes as you go up: tulip poplar and hemlock near the creek give way to oak and then to birch and beech as you near the gap.
Miles 2.9 to 5: the Appalachian Trail
Low Gap is a saddle on the state line where you meet the Appalachian Trail. Turn left (northbound) and the grade eases up considerably. The AT rolls along the ridge with the kind of long-distance views through the bare and half-bare trees that you only get in fall and winter. Northbound thru-hikers are long gone by now, so you’ll mostly share this stretch with day hikers and the occasional section hiker finishing up for the season.
The last 0.6 mile: Mt. Cammerer Trail
A signed spur turns off the AT toward the tower. It’s a little rocky near the end, with a short scramble up to the outcrop. Then you’re there. Eat lunch on the rocks, walk the catwalk, and give yourself a good half hour. The light tends to be best before noon, when the sun is still at your back looking into North Carolina.
Come back the way you came. Some folks make a loop with the Lower Mt. Cammerer Trail, but it adds mileage and a rougher descent, so we only recommend it to people who already know the area.
What to know before you go
- Parking tag. The park requires a parking tag for any vehicle parked more than 15 minutes. Buy and print it before you arrive so you aren’t hunting for a visitor center at 7 a.m. The hiker lot at Cosby is small, and in late October it fills early on weekends.
- Start early. Daylight is running out by late afternoon this time of year. A 7:30 start gets you to the tower by late morning and back to the trailhead with plenty of light to spare.
- Dress in layers. It’s often 10 degrees or more colder at the tower than at the trailhead, and the wind on the outcrop is no joke. Bring a hat and a windproof layer even if the valley is mild.
- Water and food. There’s no water on the ridge. Carry at least two liters per person and a real lunch. The climb burns through snacks.
- Footing. Fallen leaves hide roots and rocks, and the Low Gap descent gets slick after rain. Trekking poles are worth it for the knees on the way down.
- Cell service. Spotty to nonexistent on the trail. Download your map and tell someone your plan.
Shorter options if the full climb isn’t in the cards
Not everyone in the group wants 3,000 feet of elevation gain. Cosby has a couple of gentler walks that still deliver the fall color. Hen Wallow Falls on the Gabes Mountain Trail is about 4.4 miles round trip to a 90-foot cascade, and the Park Service lists it among its suggested autumn hikes. The Cosby Nature Trail is a mellow mile-and-a-bit loop along the creek that’s fine for small kids. And if you just want to sit in the color, the Cosby picnic area under the big hemlocks is one of our favorite spots in the park on a weekday afternoon.
Where to stay for the hike
The nice thing about hiking Cammerer from the Cosby side is that you can roll out of bed, drive ten minutes, and be on the trail while the Gatlinburg crowd is still sitting in traffic on the Parkway. All of our cabins are on the Cosby end of the park, which is why we send so many guests up this trail.
For a group of hikers who want to come back to a big kitchen and a hot tub, Maddron Bald Mountain Home is the one we recommend. It’s named after the trail that climbs the next ridge over from Cammerer, and it sleeps enough people that nobody has to draw straws for the couch. Mountain Rest is a quieter pick for a couple or a small family, with a fire pit in the trees that’s exactly where you want to be with sore legs and a cup of something warm. If you want to look at the mountain you just climbed through a wall of windows, Cabin in the Smoky Mountains has the view. And Cozy Creek Cabin sits right on the water, which is a fine thing to fall asleep to after an 11-mile day.
Maddron Bald Mountain Home
Room for the whole hiking crew, plus a kitchen built for a post-trail feast.
See the cabin →
Mountain Rest
A fire pit in the woods and quiet nights after a long climb.
See the cabin →
Cabin in the Smoky Mountains
Floor-to-ceiling windows facing the ridges you just hiked.
See the cabin →
Cozy Creek Cabin
Right on the creek, a short drive from the Cosby trailhead.
See the cabin →
Plan your late-October climb
The window for this hike at its best is short. By the second week of November the color on the ridge will be mostly down and the mornings at the tower will be properly cold. If you’ve been meaning to see the Smokies from above in the fall, this is the week, and Cosby is the place to start from.
BROWSE ALL OUR COSBY CABINS →
Questions about trail conditions or which cabin fits your group? Reach out before you book. We hike these trails ourselves and we’re happy to point you in the right direction.
Sample audit — 8 pages, in your inbox within 24 hours