Visit Trees In Excess Of 450 Years Old At Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest In North Carolina

Nowhere else in North Carolina can you bear witness to an old-growth forest quite like the one found at Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest in Robbinsville. In fact, it may be the oldest virgin timber in all of the Appalachian Mountains. Step inside for a walk through and find out just how special this tract of land is.

One of the very first things visitors notice is the extraordinary large number of enormous trees found in the forest.

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Many are in excess of 450 years old, making them the largest trees in the mountains of North Carolina.

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And some have grown to really tower over the landscape. Many are over 100 feet tall!

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For the most part, 13 trails reach underneath the forest canopy here.

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But if you want to hike the best of the best, you’ll hop on the 1.9-mile Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest Loop Trail. Follow alongside a river for part of the hike, and expect a total elevation change of just 383 feet along the way.

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Prepare for some awesome photos!

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And try all you want, but you’ll never quite get your arms looped all the way around many of the larger trees in the forest.

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Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest was named for Joyce Kilmer, who was killed during World War I in France. Kilmer wrote the poem, ‘Trees."

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The forest is open to the public year-round. It’s rarely crowded. Learn more about it from the official Forest Service website right here.