Jeffrey's Hell Trail #196

Dogs Leashed

Features Birding · Commonly Backpacked · Fall Colors · Historical Significance · Wildflowers · Wildlife

If wildflowers are your jam, then Jeffrey's Hell is for you. Easily found just upstream of a couple of waterfalls as you hike along South Fork Citico Creek Trail #105, Jeffrey Hell Trail immediately crosses a shallow upper mid section of South Fork Citico Creek and works its way uphill along a small tributary.

At 0.6 miles, you reach the old road bed and a lightly used campsite. Continue along the roadbed as the forest opens up and animal signs becomes more common. The now overgrown road is covered in a mix of dog hobble, briars, and wildflowers. The trail crosses the upper section of Falls Creek Branch and the big metal pipe around 1.75 miles in. The trail intersects with Falls Branch Falls Trail #87 just below the southern trailhead, and typical access, at West Rattlesnake Rock along the Cherohala Skyway.

In local lore, the area came by its name tragically. A man named Jeffrey supposedly lost his hunting dogs during a wildfire and went to find them, even if he had to go to hell to do it. Areas thick with rhododendron were also know to early settlers as "hells," and these mountains offer plenty.