Citico Creek Wilderness

Citico Creek Wilderness is a 16,226-acre protected area in Tennessee’s Cherokee National Forest that preserves the upper drainage of Citico Creek in the rugged Unicoi Mountains. Named for the ancient Overhill Cherokee village of Citico at the creek’s mouth, the region was later transformed by heavy logging in the early 1920s and a destructive 1925 forest fire. After the U.S. Forest Service acquired the land in the 1930s, natural recovery produced a mature second-growth Appalachian forest, with two notable old-growth remnants. The wilderness is also part of a broader network of protected mountain lands linked to major scenic routes and neighboring wild areas.

Tennessee · United States