Gee creek

Gee Creek is a wilderness area near Etowah, TN. We were camping in the area so that we could kayak the Hiwassee River so on our non-river day we came here. The wilderness area is small, basically it’s Starr Mountain on the west, Chestnut Mountain on the east and the wilderness covers from ridge to ridge including the Gee Creek drainage between them.

The valley heading up is very scenic and remote. There is a foundation from an iron mine that used to be here and you’ll also pass a concrete sluice that encloses the river for a bit upstream of the mine ruins. The first river crossing is by bridge but once you enter the wilderness (there is no sign), all future river crossings are rock-hops.

This falls which may or may not be called Gee Creek Falls is near the upper end of the “trail”. From here the trail ascends, crosses the river again and sort of runs out in a hemlock grove upstream. There is a path beyond this which becomes increasingly steep and less traveled. Different maps show the trail going different distances but on none of them does it ever approach the wilderness boundaries. The cliffs here are substantial and it would be a very challenging connection.

Both Starr and Chestnut mountain have trails along the ridges which appear to be aimed primarily at horse travel (a horse camp is nearby).