Appalachian Trail - Sams Gap — Attraction in Mars Hill

Sam's Gap is a great place to hop on the AT heading northbound! (you can hike south too, but north takes you to Big Bald!) It's about a 6.5mi hike to the top of Big Bald and the 360 degree mountain views are more than worth it!

In early spring the trail can be quite muddy so stay aware! If you want a solid days hike, park your car at Sam's Gap and a friends car at Spivey Gap and hike northbound 14mi to Spivey! The trail is fantastically maintained.

If you have done the trail going northbound I highly suggest flipping and going southbound from Spivey-Sam's the views are slightly different, but also overwhelmingly beautiful! It'll be a good quad workout, too!

This is also a great place to do trail magic for AT Thru and section hikers!!!

(photos are from a recent trip up...

Great place for fall hiking. Did an out and back hike from Sam's Gap to Big Bald. This was a little harder trail. The elevation gain is about 3100 feet and about 12 miles round trip. The first couple of miles are on a wide, clear trail through wooded land. The last couple of miles are over steep, winding, and often rocky terrain. The views throughout this trail section are amazing. 360 degree views from Big Bald. I met more people on this section of the AT than any other I've done so far - of course this may have been due to great fall...

We were staying in the area and looking for an easy way to access the Appalachian Trail, and so glad we found Sams Gap. Plenty of easy parking right off the highway (which does mean you're listening to highway noise for a little while til you get further away). The trail was easy going for the first mile or so, easy enough for our five year old to...