Mountains to Sea Trail Thru Hiker Special

The Mountains-to-Sea Trail, North Carolina’s flagship State Trail, is a 1,400-mile trail reaching from Clingmans Dome in Great Smoky Mountains National Park near the Tennessee line to Jockey’s Ridge on the Outer Banks. Unlike many other long-distance trails, the MST does not try to be a wilderness trail. Instead, it aims to trace the diversity that is North Carolina: from ancient mountains to small Piedmont farms, coastal swamps to colonial towns, barrier islands to changing textile villages, it is as much about the people and culture of the state as about the natural landscape.

Ultimately, the trail will be a continuous footpath as a unit of North Carolina’s State Parks system. Over 700 miles of the route are currently on natural surface or greenway trail, unpaved forest roads, or beach. A series of connectors on back roads knits together finished sections, creating a continuous path across the state. A paddle route on the Neuse River provides an alternate way to complete part of the coastal plain section, from Smithfield to New Bern.