Backpacking the Big Tree Shortcut Loop Trail in the Sipsey Wilderness of Alabama

This is a short, one night, backpacking trip in the Sipsey Wilderness of Alabama, following the Big Tree Shortcut Loop Trail. The trail starts and ends at the Thompson Creek Trailhead and is about 12 miles (19 km) around including a visit to the Big Tree and East Bee Branch Falls.

For this one-night backpacking (#backpacking) trip, we decided to do one of my favorite trails (#myfavoritetrail), The Big Tree Shortcut Loop Trail. We start at the Thompson Creek trailhead on the far western side of the Sipsey Wilderness (#sipseywilderness) and hike the loop in a counter-clockwise direction. This allows us to head down Thompson Creek and visit the Ship Rock and pass through the Needle’s Eye before hanging out for a while at the Sispey Fork rapids.

After that, we continued down the beautiful Sipsey Fork canyon until we came to a rock overhang where I had planned to camp, but the spot was muddy, so we continued on to a large flat camp site right on the Sipsey Fork. There we met a couple of nice guys from Memphis and had a great evening of conversation.

The next morning, we packed up and headed to the intersection with Trail 204A and took that up Bee Branch Canyon. At the fork in the creek we went to the right up East Bee Branch until we reached East Bee Branch Falls and the Big Tree. The Big Tree is the largest yellow poplar (tulip poplar) tree in Alabama (#championtree) and measures about 150 ft (45.7 m) tall and about 25 ft (7.6 m) in circumference.

After exploring the Big Tree area, we headed back down East Bee Branch and then crossed the creek and went up West Bee Branch to take the shortcut trail steeply up over the ridge and then down until we returned to the Thompson Creek. Finally, we went back up Thompson Creek a short distances to return to the trail head.

It was a beautiful trip, with fabulous weather and it is always fun to show people the Big Tree for the first time.

The Sipsey Wilderness lies within the Bankhead National Forest in northwestern Alabama. Sipsey was the first designated wilderness area in Alabama in 1975 and now encompasses about 24,922 acres (10,086 ha). Rivers and streams have carved canyons and valleys in the limestone and sandstone of the local plateau resulting in a wide range of micro-climates in a short hiking distance, some amazing natural features, a few historic sites, as well as endless nooks and crannies to explore. Wilderness camping, building campfires, hunting, and fishing are permitted. Sipsey is a "Leave no Trace" area (https://lnt.org/why/7-principles/) with, despite appearances, no designated fire rings, camp sites or facilities. Unfortunately, there are many traces of the hundreds who hike and camp here every year. Please be considerate and do not add to the already extensive damage in this special place.

My custom maps of the Sipsey Wilderness: https://drive.google.com/drive/folder...

My other videos of the Sipsey Wilderness:
   • Sipsey Wilderness  

Big Tree Shortcut Loop Trail info: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/tra...
Sipsey Wilderness info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sipsey_...

Equipment:
Camera: GoPro Hero8 Black: https://gopro.com/en/us/shop/cameras/...

Title card music by Lobo-Loco: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lob...

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#hiking
#backpacking
#waterfall