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Reinhart Knob and Richland Balsam - Blue Ridge Parkway, NC

1,954 views · Published 22 November 2017 · 15:48 · Indexed 11 October 2026

Channel: Zachary Robbins · 2017 · Travel & Events

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My second hike of the day, and this was all about finishing the 6K peaks of the Great Balsam Mountains. I started at Beartrail Ridge Overlook and began a half-mile bushwhack to the top of Reinhart Knob. The bushwhack wasn't too bad, I generally stayed left of the height-of-land close to the parkway to avoid thick sections of thorns. There was flagging tape occasionally as well. The summit was marked with a newish wooden sign. Reinhart Knob is listed as 6,080 ft but my GPS map had 6,095 ft, so it's either of those. The hardest part of this hike is the bushwhack descent straight down the south slope to the MST. In order for these peakbags to count for the South Beyond 6000 list you have to hike a minimum of 5 miles. So I generally followed the origin of the South Fork of Bearwallow Creek about 700 feet straight down in 0.5-mi. I picked up the MST and headed west for about 1 mile when I came to an intersection with a very obvious flagged trail. I decided to take that to see where it goes, since my original plan was to bushwhack up to the parkway. It steeply led to Cowee Mountains Overlook, and from there it was a short walk to Haywood-Jackson Overlook and the Richland Balsam Nature Trail. 

Richland Balsam is the tallest peak in the Great Balsams at 6,410 ft and the 9th tallest in the East. The mountain has no views, it is covered by a dense southern Appalachian spruce-fir forest. The full trail is 1.4 miles but the loop itself is around 1 mile. I thought I wasn't going to hit the 5 mile mark, so I dropped my pack and ran the loop a 2nd time with my GPS to make sure. Turns out I didn't have to do that, oh well. On the way back I lucked into catching the sunset from Cowee Mountains Overlook with ~60 photographers. I'm sure my pictures were the worst of the bunch. 

Hike was 6.2 miles in 3 hours and 50 minutes.

Hike location
https://goo.gl/maps/RTe2aesQVdxj9h866

Hike report
https://www.hikingupward.com/NCSP/RichlandBalsam/

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