Benton MacKaye Trail, Gilmer County, Georgia

The Benton MacKaye Trail or BMT is a footpath nearly in length in the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. The ...

in the southeastern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

and is blazed by a white diamond, 5″ across by 7″ tall. The hiking trail was created and is maintained by the

Benton MacKaye Trail Association The Benton MacKaye Trail Association (BMTA) was organized in 1979 and incorporated in 1980 to build and maintain the Benton MacKaye Trail (BMT). Driving the effort was a desire to see opened for hiking Benton MacKaye's chosen route for his Appal ...

, and it is named for Benton MacKaye, the Massachusetts forester and regional planner who first had the idea for the

Appalachian Trail The Appalachian Trail (also called the A.T.), is a hiking trail in the Eastern United States, extending almost between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine, and passing through 14 states.Gailey, Chris (2006)"Appalachian ...

in 1921. The BMT runs from

Springer Mountain Springer Mountain is a mountain located in the Chattahoochee National Forest on the border of Fannin and Gilmer counties. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Georgia, the mountain has an elevation of about . Springer Mountain serves ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to t ...

(sharing the southern terminus of the

) to Big Creek in the

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an American national park in the southeastern United States, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, wh ...

. The trail passes through seven United States Wilderness Areas, while traversing three states (Georgia,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to ...

and

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia a ...

). The lowest elevation (765 ft) on the BMT occurs at the crossing of the Hiwassee River in Tennessee. The highest elevation is the summit of Mt. Sterling in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. The trail crosses various trout rivers along its path including

Shallowford Bridge Shallowford Bridge is a steel truss bridge built in 1918 that crosses the Toccoa River in north Georgia, United States. The bridge, located on Aska Road close to the city of Blue Ridge, is 175 feet in length, and 11 feet wide. The bridge is cons ...

and the Swinging Bridge over the Toccoa River in Georgia, the Ocoee, Hiwassee, Upper Bald and Tellico rivers in Tennessee, and the Little Tennessee River in North Carolina. It also crosses Eagle, Hazel, Forney, Noland and Big creeks in the Smokies, along with Fontana Dam and the Oconaluftee River.

References

*Benton MacKaye Trail Association (2006)
"Benton MacKaye Trail Association"
Retrieved March 2, 2006. *Homan, Tim. 2004. ''Hiking the Benton MacKaye Trail: A guide to the Benton MacKaye trail from Georgia's Springer Mountain to Tennessee's Ocoee River''. Peachtree Publishers. .

External links

Benton MacKaye Trail Association Official Site
��includes a map
Trail photos
Hiking trails in Georgia (U.S. state) Hiking trails in Tennessee Hiking trails in North Carolina Long-distance trails in the United States Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest Nantahala National Forest {{US-trail-stub