The Yellow Mountain Trail is located near Highlands, NC. Drive east on US 64 from Highlands 2.7 miles, turn left onto Buck Creek Road and continue 2.3 miles up to Cole Gap. There is a sign and steps on the right side of Buck Creek Road at the trailhead. This is a 10 mile strenuous out-and-back hike which proceeds over Cole Mountain, Shortoff Mountain and Goat Knob before the final climb to the top of Yellow Mountain. The trail terminates at the old Yellow Mountain Fire Tower. Atop the highest peak in the Cowee Mountains, this 1934 CCC-built stone lookout house is among only two of its kind remaining in the southeastern United States. Staffed until 1969, the Yellow Mountain lookout tower was not maintained until the mid-1980s when USFS employee Ron Carnes led a restoration effort to rehabilitate the tower to its former condition. Its central location among mountain ranges enables a spectacular vantage point of the Great Smoky Mountains, Plott Balsams, Cowees, Nantahalas, and Great Balsams as well as into the Georgia and South Carolina high country, which gives the hiker an opportunity to view a magnificent 360 degree view. It is very much worth the trip but it is not for beginners.
