Sam Knob Trail
At A Glance
1.07 mi one-way
Difficulty Rating: 2.44 
Steepness: Climbs Moderately
Tread Condition: Moderately Rough
Lowest Elevation: 5420 ft
Highest Elevation: 6075 ft
Climb Total: 655 ft
Blaze Color: Blue
Trail Number: 617
Hikes That Use This Trail: Sam Knob, Flat Laurel Creek
Description
Fantastic, high elevation trail. Starts at the Flat Laurel Creek trail and travels to the summit of Sam Knob. Blueberries abound in season. Short, high-elevation hardwood forest near the bottom, then heath balds and grassy areas near the top. At the summit, the trail forks and goes to both the north and south high points on the knob. Both directions end at overlooks offering spectacular views of the Middle Prong, Shining Rock, and Black Balsam areas.
Intersecting Trails
This trail is located in the Black Balsam area. For a list of all the trails in that area, see the Black Balsam trails list page.
All Photos from the Trail
GPS Map
Map Information
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Data Formats
KML (Google Earth)
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GPX
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GeoJSON
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About the Map
Copyright
Base Layers
Base layers provided by OpenStreetMap, the US Geological Survey, the US Forest Service, and NC OneMap. Base layer images are subject to the respective copyright policies of their owners. Base layers may not be available at all times due to system maintenance or outages.
WNCOutdoors Base Layer
The WNCOutdoors Base layer is provided by WNCOutdoors.info. It is licensed by Creative Commons Attribution 3.0.
Trail and Marker Overlays
Trail layers and downloadable data are all original works created by WNCOutdoors with guidance from a variety of sources, including ensembles of our own GPS tracks, user contributed GPS tracks, official maps and GIS data from government agencies, and field observations. WNCOutdoors data is made freely available under the Open Database License - you are free to copy and use it for any purpose under the terms of that license (summary).
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Trail Segments
Trails are often made up of several connecting paths which may have different characteristics, allowed uses, and seasons. This trail is divided into multiple segments as follows:
Meadow to Summit
- Allowed Uses: Hiking
- Length: 0.58 mi
Flat Laurel Creek to Meadow
- Allowed Uses: Hiking
- Length: 0.41 mi
Summit Split to North Summit Overlook
- Allowed Uses: Hiking
- Length: 476 ft
Summit Split to South Summit Overlook
- Allowed Uses: Hiking
- Length: 313 ft
Total Calculated Length: 1.14 mi
This value is derived from our underlying map data, and it may not match officially published information.
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