A few photos before the weeds and underbrush took over. Photos all taken on an epic complete tour of the Benson Plateau on June 29th, 2018.

After my usual near-noon start, I had to hurry to get back by complete darkness and fortunately, I made it.

I hiked every trail on the plateau and went south as far as Camp Smoky – which was at long last, appropriately named!

Except as noted, all photos were taken on Benson Way, the trail along the far western edge of the plateau. That part of the trail system burned so hot that in most of the distance, there wasn’t even a trace of soil or duff remaining and the trail was hard to find even though I had hiked it several times before and had a GPS track in my GPS to follow, just in case. I counted about 150 trees down in total and by now, (summer of 2023) there’s likely many more. Enjoy!

Teakettle Spring, as I neared the start of the plateau:

Benson Way photos: These photos look directly at the trail as it recedes into the distance.

My GPS as I returned to the start at the Herman Creek TH: