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Although the very popular Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail
is closed to traffic during the winter,
you can park nearby and take a short walk to several trailheads.
Hi! This is Elizabeth Watts for the Great Smoky Mountains
Association, and I was shopping the other day at Sugarlands
Visitor Center, and I ran across this book called
Waterfalls of the Smokies, and in reading through it,
I found a very interesting-sounding trail.
Baskins Creek Trail is in an area where there's a lot of
busy trails, like Rainbow Falls and Grotto Falls, but this one
doesn't receive very much traffic at all.
And just a little over a mile down the trail, there's an
unmarked side trail that snakes down to a waterfall,
so we're going to see if we can find it and we're going to
take you with us.
What a treat! We spotted the seldom seen American Woodcock.
We were lucky to have several wildlife sightings along the hike.
I see there's a place where I think I can cross here without
getting my feet too wet, and then we'll get Jill across with
the camera and we'll reconvene on the other side.
If you take the side trail to the settlers' cemetery,
expect a couple of creek crossings and a steep incline.
Here in the tiny Baskins Cemetery, most of the gravemarkers
are just stones, and I can see scratched into this one "Ogle"--
that's a very prominent name in this area--
and 1907.
Well most of them you really can't even read what they said.
Oh, OK. I think that this is our unmarked trail.
Now there is a sign here, but it doesn't actually tell you what
this trail is.
It just shows you where the main trail goes.
So I guess we're going to check this out.
Come on!
Well the path is well-worn down to the falls, so I'm sure a lot
of people have tried this out in the past.
So here we are at Baskins Creek Falls.
I can see it just right over the edge here.
And it gets really steep along the trail, so if you're going
to do this spur, make sure you have good hiking shoes.
I don't think tennis shoes are really going to cut it,
especially when it's wet like it is today.
And a good hiking stick never hurt.
Wow! There it is!
Whoa! It's really flowing!
OK. Can you hear me alright?
(laughs)
Be careful! It's slippery!
Ready? (laughs)
So there's a lot of local lore surrounding Baskins Creek
and Baskins Falls.
The name actually came from Bearskin Joe who was a hunter and
he caught a lot of bears.
And so the creek was originally named Bearskin Joe's Creek.
It was shortened to Bearskin Creek, but the locals would say it
"Bar-skin Creek" I imagine, and so it got misunderstood,
and now it's called Baskins Creek.
And the tiny little community of Baskin used to come out,
so local lore says, and use these falls as a shower in the
summertime.
Right now it's a little cold for that, but I imagine it would be
really refreshing in the summertime.
And because there's no deep pool down here, you could just
walk up the creek, take a shower, and walk home.
Well, thanks for joining us on the Baskins Creek Trail and the
spur to the beautiful Baskins Creek Waterfall.
See you next time!