I hiked Baxter Creek to find many wildflowers as our springtime gets fully underway. Baxter Creek Trailhead is at the Big Creek picnic grounds.  Going East on I-40, get off at the last exit in Tennessee.  Pass by a large power plant. Major construction is in the area.

There are 21 trees down across the trail on about the first two & half miles.

Up the trail for approximately two and a half miles, many of the blooms are at different stages in the lower elevations than they are in the higher elevations.

For those who enjoy the fragrance from the Dog Hobble, about the first mile up the trail, it is a treat.

In one area on both sides of the trail, there is probably not two square feet without a Trillium in full bloom.

Many Blooms

  • Bishop Caps
  • Canadian Violets
  • Crested Dwarf Iris
  • Dog Hobble
  • False Solomon’s Seal
  • Foam Flower
  • Purple Phacelia
  • Stone Crop
  • Sweet White Cicely
  • Yellow Trillium

Some Blooms

  • Bed Straw
  • Brook Lettuce
  • Dogwood
  • Hooked Buttercup
  • Rue Anemone
  • Solomon’s Seal
  • Star Chickweed
  • Sweet White Violet
  • Wild Geranium
  • Wild Phlox

Few Blooms

  • Baneberry – (Also called Doll Eyes)
  • Blue Cohosh
  • Common Blue Violet
  • Long Spurred Violet – Almost gone.
  • Seersucker Sedge
  • Squaw Root – One large clump of them.
  • Sweet White Trillium – Almost gone.
  • Umbrella Magnolia
  • Yellow Mandarin – Almost gone.
  • Yellow Wood Violet

Bane Berry

Tom Harrington is a regular hiker who reports on his hikes and mountain stories from the Smokies. See more of his column here.

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