Mountains-to-Sea Trail Guide

Trail Guidebooks for North Carolina's Mountains-to-Sea Trail

The Mountains-to-Sea Trail (MST) is exaclty what its name implies - a 1,175-mile trail that extends from Clingmans Dome in Great Smoky Mountains National Park to Jockey's Ridge on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  About 700 miles of the route - roughly half the planned length - are currently on natural surface or greenway trail, unpaved forest roads, or beach.  A series of connectors on bicycle routes, paddle routes, and backroads knits together finished sections to span the state.

To make it easier for hikers to use the MST, Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail has divided the trail into 18 segments and created trail guides for each segment. 

Mountains: This guide covers six segments that travel from Clingmans Dome to Devils Garden Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway near the Virginia border.  Some of the highlights in this region include: the Smokies, Waterrock Knob, Middle Prong Wilderness Area, Graveyard Fields, Asheville, Craggy Gardens, Mount Mitchell, Linville Gorge, Wilson and Harper Creeks, Grandfather Mountain, and Doughton Park.

Piedmont:  This guide covers the five segments that travel from Devils Garden Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway near the Virginia border to Falls Lake dam in Raleigh.  Some of the highlights in this region include: Stone Mountain State Park, the town of Elkin, Pilot Mountain State Park, the Sauratown Trail, Hanging Rock State Park, Greensboro's watershed lakes, Glencoe Mill Village and the Haw River Trail, the town of Hillsborough, Eno River State Park, and Falls Lake.

Coastal Plain & Outer Banks:  This guide covers the nine segments that travel from the Falls Lake dam in Raleigh to Jockey's Ridge State Park in Nags Head.  Some of the highlights in this region include: the Neuse River, North Carolina's agricultural heartland in Johnston, Sampson, and Cumberland Counties, Carolina Bays at Jones and Singletary Lake State Parks and the town of White Lake, longleaf pine savannas, the Croatan National Forest and Neusiok Trail, fishing villages aong the Core Sound, the town of Ocracoke, three lighthouses, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, and Jockey's Ridge State Park.