White Oak Trail

Dogs Leashed

Features Birding · Fall Colors · River/Creek · Wildflowers

Historic Rugby has a restaurant, the Harrow Road Cafe, that is open 12-8 Thursday-Saturday. Sunday from 12-6. Brooks Store, at the other end of Historic Rugby, also has excellent food and is open Monday-Friday 10-5 and Saturday 8-5. There are public restrooms available in the visitor center and the building outside. Visit the cute shops in downtown Historic Rugby and stop into the Visitor's Center. They give tours of this very interesting town; it was meant to be the Utopian town of the second sons of British Aristocrats, founded in the late 1800s. There is a free movie you can watch in the visitors center that is about the town and they have many different events and workshops year round.

Starting in September 2019, a local group of Ultra trail runners will hold a timed grouped run and you might be able to find information about it on facebook.

Starting at the bridge, making sure not to block any gates, follow along the river until you arrive at a split. Either direction you take will connect back to this location as it is a loop trail.

You'll cross over Horseshoe Bend Road twice. Halfway around the loop, you'll enter into a beautiful hemlock stand. This stand remains very cool in the summer due to the shade this amazing tree provides. These hemlocks were treated by the Tennessee Division of Forestry HWA Strike Team for the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, which is threatening this trees existence.

The trail will incline in this hemlock area and it's pretty steep, muddy and slick almost year round. However, it's a short climb and takes you back into hardwoods and back around to the split.

You'll see eastern Hemlock stands, mountain laurel, rhododendrons, and many wildflowers in April. You may also see beavers, barred and great horned owls, various song birds, foxes, and more.