Balsam Mountain Offroading
In the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, just outside of Cherokee, NC, is a 14-mile trail known as Heintooga Round Bottom Road. It looked pretty tame, so Lynnette and I decided to give it a spin in our Jeep.
The good news is that just about anyone can take this trip. A 4WD vehicle is not required.
The highlight of the trip was this rocky water crossing. The entire way, we only passed 2 other vehicles and 1 mountain biker... and we just happened to capture both cars going through the water.
(The other one's in the video below.)
While our summer ride was OK, I imagine that the real secret here is that this will be a great ride in the Fall when the rest of the Smoky Mountains look like the entrance to Disney World... this little gem on Balsam Mountain may offer a quiet getaway off of the main trail.
Check out our video footage from Heintooga Round Bottom Road along Balsam Mountain (2:25 minutes)...
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Thanks for the site and the video, my hisband and I own a '90 Jeep Wrangler and a '96 GMC 4x4 Jimmy. We moved to Canton & Hendersonville North Carolina a year ago from Vermont (orginally from Georgia Mtn.) and have began exploring trails to take our Jeep on. He's found some on Pisgah Mountain which is in Hendersonville, NC that are pretty atrocious, however I can't wait to take him to the one you have in your video. Thanks alot for all the info ! Believe it or not, it's actually helping improve my marriage of 13 years, now showing more of an intrest in an activity he really enjoys :)
tx guys. I also am the owner of a Wrangler, 97 TJ with two inch lift, dynomax muffler, magnaflow converter, Donsco extended length shocks and a few other goodies. We live in central Pa. up in the mts. so we do have accessibility to quite a few offroading areas near us. My son also has a 90 YJ six cylinder which is hiked up about six inches, fuel cell, 33 inch tires, looks like a miniature bigfoot. he and his friend specialize in offroading customs. good cruising. happy holidays
Jim...enjoyed the video you posted. Thanks for the tip and for scoping it out for all of us. Lynnette's 1/2 bear rating is a hoot. Is that out of 5 bears?