Cherokee National Forest · Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina

Starr Mountain Hiking Trail

4.9 mi of trail, end to end · Gee Creek Falls Hike: 2.6 mi round trip in the Service's write-up · trail No. 190 · the forest publishes the line only

Begins at the forest's mile 0, 35.2914, -84.4888 - no trailhead mapped Drive to where the trail begins

Gee Creek Falls Hike 2.6 mi round trip · the Forest Service's write-up

View of Gee Creek Falls in Cherokee National Forest
Photo: US Forest Service

This trail lies almost entirely inside the Congressionally designated Gee Creek Wilderness. Trail length to the falls is approximately 1.3-miles from the trailhead, making it a 2.6-mile roundtrip hike.

To help visitors plan their adventure and enjoy this featured day hike, Johnny Molloy, Outdoor Writer & Board Member of Partners of the Cherokee National Forest, has provided an excerpt from his book, Five Star Trails: Chattanooga , Gee Creek Falls Hike .

Point of Interest: Remnants of Mining in Wetmore

Look for the concrete water diverter in Gee Creek that was used to wash mined silica, which provided flux for furnaces processing copper. The mining occurred around the 1890s when the railroad provided a new option to access the Copper Basin in addition to the Copper Road (now US Highway 64).

Restrictions This is a hiking only trail.&nbsp; Recreation in congressionally designated Wilderness is intended to be primitive in nature.&nbsp;Group size is limited to 12 people.&nbsp; For more information about congressionally designated Wilderness, please visit <a href="http://www.wilderness.net/" target="”_blank”">www.wilderness.net</a>.&nbsp; Overnight camping in this Wilderness is not permitted.&nbsp;

This hike on fs.usda.gov

Every trail in Cherokee National Forest

All 185 trails in Cherokee National ForestFind a trailForest on fs.usda.gov

About this trail's facts

The lines are the US Forest Service's National Forest System trails layer (public domain), read 2026-10-16 and simplified for the map; the length is the line's, end to end, and the class, surface, grade and tread width are the forest's own entries where it publishes them - a forest that publishes the centreline alone has none. The trailheads and the points along the way are the Service's recreation points, and the write-ups its own recarea text, unedited. Heights come from USGS 3DEP through Terrain Tiles on AWS (Mapzen/Tilezen), read along each line and rounded; a short trail on steep ground can be off by a few tens of feet. Closures change: check the forest's own site before you go.