SYLVA–With peak fall color just around the corner, there’s no better way to mark the change in season than a walk up The Pinnacle in Sylva.
Having read many of the available write-ups of The Pinnacle hike, let me start mine by clearing my conscience. Hiking The Pinnacle is hard. It’s not impossible or overly technical, but it is a steep three-hour round trip with loose footing through large sections.
I’ve seen more than a few people coming down that hill having not reached the top, because someone told them the view was great without telling them the walk was hard.
The view to the east from The Pinnacle.
Directions from Sylva: Skyland Dr. east. Continue under Smoky Mountain Expressway overpass. Second left on Fisher Creek Rd. Follow to trail head at end.
Time: 3 to 4 hrs.
Must have: water, good shoes, camera
Perks: dog-friendly, varied habitat
Warning: The hike up The Pinnacle is steep with loose footing!
Key links:
Hiking info
Park info
With that said, the view from The Pinnacle is about as good as it gets without a drive to Watterock Knob, Whiteside Mountain, or Clingman’s Dome, and it’s almost guaranteed to be private. If you’re used to walking in the mountains, you’ll be fine. I saw a family with what looked to be five and seven-year-old kids at the top last week.
Jay Coward –– the Sylva lawyer who along with Sylva Police Chief Davis Woodard has cared for the trail system at Pinnacle Park –– called the view from The Pinnacle “intimate.” I think his description fits well. The Pinnacle is a rock knob below the main ridge line of the Plott Balsams that juts out into the valley in such a way that it just about hangs 2,500-feet above town.
It’s intimate, because if there’s somebody else out there when you arrive, you won’t know it until you’re just about on top of them. It’s intimate because it lays Sylva out beneath you and shows you in no uncertain terms that it’s just a little mountain town surrounded by layer upon layer of green ridges. And it’s intimate because, unlike Blackrock, it’s protected from the wind and faces south, making it sort of cozy.
Bill Graham pointed out that if you live on Fisher Creek, you could get home from The Pinnacle on a well-mounted zip wire, though you might reach terminal velocity on the way down without an equally well-designed hand brake.
All of these facts point to the idea that The Pinnacle is part of the fabric of life in the heart of the mountains. The park used to provide the town with its drinking water, and its caves and hollows were crisscrossed by bear and rattlesnake hunters for a century.
The thing I like most about the walk is that it is an old path. If you want to walk in the footsteps of the old timers who lived up and over the ridge from town, this is the trail.
Go to Switzerland and you’ll see a 70-year-old woman walking up the mountain with calves bigger than Kobe Bryant’s carrying groceries or a grandchild. Ours, alas, is not a walking culture anymore. How cool would it be if there were walking trails connecting Bryson City, Cherokee, Sylva, Cullowhee, and Cashiers?
Hiking The Pinnacle offers the experience of going from the valley floor to the ridge. You can watch the plants change as you go higher. The laurel thickens around 3,500 feet. The birds change too. Views are best when you work for them, and the view from The Pinnacle is especially sweet.
