Satulah Mountain Summit

Satulah Mountain Summit offers spectacular views of Satulah Mountain, Hidden Falls and Blue Valley. You can also glimpse the 100-foot Lower Satulah Falls, still as mysterious as when the region’s first inhabitants saw it. Visit during high water with the leaves off for the best view of the actual waterfall; snow scenes, valley fog and fall color are best for the overall photographic potential.

Satulah Mountain Summit is a one-mile roundtrip hike down an old road bed to the 4,543-foot crown. The peak is classified as a heath bald and offers vistas of three states. Ascending the trail, you first encounter a forest of northern red oak, white oak, and chestnut oak. At the first switchback there’s a remarkable stand of mountain pepperbush overhanging the trail. Both chinquapin and witch hazel are common shrubs here. The trail leads to a stunted, virgin oak forest. At the trail fork, go right.

As you approach the summit, the forest becomes heath (rhododendron) with stunted white oak. The dwarf white oaks at the summit are 200 years old. This is a zone with dwarfed pitch pine, where a 200-year-old tree may be only 10 inches in diameter. The first purple rhododendron is encountered along with the first pines. Chinquapin is abundant.

 The summit provides the best look at unusual plants growing only on the bare granite rock so characteristic of the cliffs of this area and those along the Chattooga headwaters. Twisted hair spike moss forms large, thick mats on the upper cliffs. Sand myrtle grows only at the outer edge of the ground cover extending onto the rocks. A rare juniper forms low-spreading, wind-pruned growth.

The summit provides the best look at unusual plants growing only on the bare granite rock so characteristic of the cliffs of this area and those along the Chattooga headwaters. Twisted hair spike moss forms large, thick mats on the upper cliffs. Sand myrtle grows only at the outer edge of the ground cover extending onto the rocks. A rare juniper forms low-spreading, wind-pruned growth.

Exploring the summit, you’ll find curious potholes, the basement of a former fire tower, and patches of soil forming in moist depressions in the naked rock. Often on other outcrops, the niche of the pitch pine is filled by the nearly extinct table mountain pine, and hemlocks include the rare Carolina hemlock. In the spring the evergreen heaths on these balds present unequalled wildflower displays. The mountain summit is protected and offered for public use and education by the Satulah Summit and Ravenel Park Inc.

From downtown Highlands, turn south on NC 28 and proceed up Fourth Avenue to Satulah Road.  Follow the Satulah Summit signs, bearing right at the fork. Walk about .5 mile to the end of the pavement and continue another .3 mile to a set of steep wooden stairs just before the road dead-ends into a gated private drive. The stairs begin the trail to the summit. When the trail forks, take the right fork.