Mackey Mountain Trail
At A Glance
8 mi one-way
Difficulty Rating: 8 
Steepness: Hilly
Tread Condition: Moderately Rough
Blaze Color: Orange (sparse)
Trail Number: 216
Description
The infamous Mackey Mountain trail starts near the top of Curtis Creek Road and heads southeast. This trail begins well enough, winding along and across the ridgeline past Sams Knob and over to Narrows Knob. It's a well-graded path in most places, but (as of 2016) the blazes and the trail fade away more and more the farther you go. The trail becomes all but indistinct before essentially petering out in several directions once reaching Mackey Mountain itself.
There are no maintained connections toward the southern end of Mackey Mountain trial, but there are several potential connections you could make back east down to Mackey Creek, south to Stillhouse Branch, or north to Locust Creek via old, abandoned routes. This should all be considered wilderness travel past Narrows Knob.
Intersecting Trails
This trail is located in the Curtis Creek area. For a list of all the trails in that area, see the Curtis Creek 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:
Mackey Mountain - Cutis Creek Road to Narrows Knob
- Allowed Uses: Hiking
- Length: 1.72 mi
Mackey Mountain - Mackey Mountain to End
- Allowed Uses: Hiking
- Length: 4.11 mi
Mackey Mountain - Narrows Knob to Mackey Mountain
- Allowed Uses: Hiking
- Length: 1.02 mi
Total Calculated Length: 6.85 mi
This value is derived from our underlying map data, and it may not match officially published information.
Feedback
Ratings
Average Rating: 4.5 (rated 2 times)
Rate It Now:
Thomas Mabry said: We hiked from Curtis Creek Road to the Summit of Mackey Mountain and a bit beyond. The trail past Narrows Knob is discernible but the final push to the summit is more of a glorified Bushwack. On the other side of the summit going down toward Poplar Ridge, The trail is easy to lose despite being flagged and it’s rough due to a recent fire. All said, yes, it’s difficult but the joy is having a multifaceted hike with a few good views and a rarely travelled path. 6.88 miles RT, 1650 vertical feet