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Shope Creek - Close to home

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Pisgah National Forest

Shope Creek-ForrestFalls

Carolina Mountain Club has discovered the Shope Creek area of Pisgah National Forest.

Shope Creek - the Creek On Sunday, we went on a five-mile hike through the forest.

The area is located above Riceville near the Oteen area of Asheville. If you take Riceville Rd. past the VA Hospital, turn left on Bull Gap Rd. and right on Shope Rd., you'll eventually come to a dead end. That's the beginning of the Shope section.

The area doesn't have any public parking at this time, though that's in the works eventually.

The only way we got in was because Tim Forrest, a biology professor at UNCA, had the key. Tim does entomology research in the area and he came with us. When we passed the fall above, we named it after him: Forrest Falls.

Shope Creek - car in creek The area has certainly been lived in and is now being logged by the Forest Service. That's the cadaver of a vehicle left here, years and years ago.

The trails are mostly old roads, which in spring, is supposed to have a display of showy orchis. But the primary purpose of the area is for logging. We passed bundles of large downed logs and walked through ground flattened by the saw.

Shope Creek - Logging

Logging in the National Forests

Posted by Lenny Bernstein at 2011-02-24 07:56

Danny:

The Forest Service doesn't log our National Forests. They sell the right to log to private companies.

Lenny

Logging on Forest Land

Posted by Danny Bernstein at 2011-02-24 08:29

You're right. Thanks for the comment.
Danny

Shope Creek

Posted by Art at 2011-03-13 16:56

The car in the creek was an old mail truck. I remember when it still had paint on it. Shope creek is just National Forrest so it is available for logging just like parts of Bent Creek and Mills River, but Shope Creek has less friends so it gets picked on. This land is a treasure. Just back in December I was squirrl hunting in one of the now bare areas. Bear are numerous and the valley is connected to the Northfork / Beetree watershed conglomerate which is arguably the largest totally protected tract of land in the Southeastern United States. I was hiking up there this afternoon. I counted 105 ring on the stump of a recently cut tree. Parking at the gate in defiance of the No Parking signs is only rarely a problem. Most of the neighbors down the road don’t mind folks leaving their cars down there. Have fun.

Parking available

Posted by Joe at 2012-12-04 11:13

They've put in a parking lot and turned it into a 'Day Use Area,' so it's now open to the public. Over the summer, I saw a lot more foot traffic than I had previously.

One thing to note is that a good deal of hunting goes on here. Everyone I've run into is nice, but I'd still wear some orange.

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