Balsam Nature Trail
At A Glance
0.75 mi one-way
Difficulty Rating: 0.75 
Steepness: Level
Tread Condition: Some Obstacles
Hikes That Use This Trail: Mount Mitchell
Description
This is a short loop through a dense fir forest at summit. Start from the parking area; proceed up the Summit trail and bear left at the sign onto the Mountains to Sea trail. Bear left again at the next intersection to head back to the parking area. This self-guiding nature trail identifies unique elements of this boreal forest. Some climbing is required and some sections are rocky and/or have steps. A short spur near the end leads to the highest spring east of the Mississippi, which runs a constant 37 degrees.
Intersecting Trails
This trail is located in the Mount Mitchell State Park area. For a list of all the trails in that area, see the Mount Mitchell State Park 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:
Mount Mitchell - Mountains to Sea - Balsam Nature
- Allowed Uses: Hiking
- Length: 0.25 mi
Balsam Nature
- Allowed Uses: Hiking
- Length: 0.32 mi
Total Calculated Length: 0.57 mi
This value is derived from our underlying map data, and it may not match officially published information.
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Average Rating: 5.0 (rated 1 times)
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Andrea said: These directions are not helpful. There doesn’t appear to be any such trail.