Black Mountains: Jarrett Creek Location: McDowell County, NC, 5 miles northeast of Montreat, Grandfather Ranger District, Pisgah National Forest USGS Topographic Maps: Old Fort, Montreat The beauty of Jarrett Creek itself places it in the top 10 of all the creeks on the Pisgah/Nantahala National Forest. The entire watershed is protected. The water is crystal clear, and it comes splashing down in the most alluring way. In times of high water a hiker may have some difficulty crossing, but usually a little exploring will turn up a fallen tree to serve as a footlog. In the remote and steeper northeastern part of this area, the creeks are much more difficult to reach, and course down over low falls and cascades. Many of the high coves have old growth stands of timber, bypassed because of the steep topography. Download this Map Black Mountains: Jarrett Creek 2.4 mb pdf file Approximate size: 8,975 acres Roadless acreage: 7,500 acres Old growth acreage: 4,180 acres Trails once crisscrossed the area. They followed gentle gradients opened the area to full exploration. Regrettably, the Forest Service has abandoned most of them. This is an ideal place for the volunteer maintenance crews to restore the old trails. The usual route into Jarrett Creek is by a trail that leads east from the Heartbreak Ridge Trail. After crossing a timber harvest road it deteriorates badly. Beyond Jarrett Creek, this now-unmaintained trail leads up a beautiful hollow to Star Gap, and from there down to Newberry Creek. The most used trail here is the Heartbreak Ridge Trail which follows a long ridge from the Blue Ridge Parkway to a turn onto twenty one switchbacks that lead down to Pritchard Creek and out to a road on Mill Creek. The steepest trail is that up Snooks Nose, which leads from the Curtis Creek Campground to the Blue Ridge Parkway and across to the firetower on Green Knob. Another abandoned trail leads from upper Newberry Creek through ancient forest to the Parkway. Forest Communities Mill Creek: Rich Cove (low elevation), Hemlock-Mixed Mesophytic, Mesic Oak, Submesic Oak, Dry Oak, Dry Oak-Pine, and Carolina Hemlock Forest. Heartbreak Ridge Area: Hemlock-Northern Hardwood, Rich Cove, Acidic Cove, Hemlock-Mixed Mesophytic, Alluvial Birch-Poplar, Mesic Oak, High Elevation Northern Red Oak, Submesic Oak, Dry Oak, and Carolina Hemlock Forest. Largest Diameter Tree of Its Kind in the Nantahala-Pisgah: * Chestnut oak, 56.5 inches (Jarrett Creek) * Pignut hickory, 39.3 inches (Upper Prichard Creek) * Carolina hemlock, 36.8 inches (Tributary of Mill Creek) * Black birch 35 inches (Upper Prichard Creek), second largest * Blackjack oak, 11.6 inches (Heartbreak Ridge) Unusual Plants * Showy orchis was present in Hemlock-Mixed Mesophytic and low-elevation Rich Cove forest near Saddle Ridge. These communities are associated with the Left Prong of Mill Creek. Hearts abustin' was found near a tributary in the same area. * A patch of wild bleeding heart (Dicentra eximia) was found on a steep, moist valley slope in the Saddle Ridge area. * High Elevation Northern Red Oak forest (located at the top of a tributary of the Right Prong of Mill Creek) had pockets of noticeably richer herb diversity than surrounding forests. Native sedge, bluets, Indian pipe, a kind of cress, mosses, and galax were found amid moist rock outcrops. * Pockets of rich herb diversity were found in Rich Cove and Submesic Oak forests in upper Prichard Creek. Small eastern hophornbeam trees were found in upper Prichard Creek and upper Newberry Creek. * Rocky seeps along upper Newberry Creek harbor uncommon or rare herbs. * Upper Newberry Creek has high herb diversity in Rich Cove forests near the Blue Ridge. Deep dark humus (also known as Porters Loam) provides some of the basis for this high diversity. * Mesic Oak forest in the upper section of the west fork of Newberry Creek had numerous herbs that are often associated with Rich Cove forests (such as blue cohosh and toothwort). This area resembles a similar forest type in Middle Creek RNA.

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