Back way into School House gap a delightful hike

I like to try different trails and even different trail heads to mix it up on my hikes.
This spring one of the "Get on Trial w/ Friends & Missy" hikes was to the ever popular White oak sinks area of the park.   But instead of going in off the park road Laurel road I met up with my crew at Tuckaleechee Caverns then we carpooled up to a friends cabin who lives on School House Gap road.  This is close to the Caverns out of Townsend.    There is a parking area a the end of school house gap road where 5-7 cars can park.   It is a pretty pretty road with even an old Red School house that a family has refurbished into a lovely cabin.    The gravel road past the parking is steep but has lots of spring/summer flowers along the way.   Saw a rare tennessee type orange orchid along the route (comes out usually in summer) then you see trail head for both School House Gap (left) and Scott Mountain (right)  We went along the School House Gap trail and saw lots of flowers and even some early Flaming azaila's.   after one mile you see the trail down to the rt (no sign) to white oak sinks.   People are encouraged to stay on the trail and even when you see the Gorgeous Pink Lady Slippers be careful not to trample too close as these are delicate flowers and if "upset" will not come back.   There is a lovely water falls towards the bottom (off to the right) Silver Falls and it was full since we just had rain that morning.

Then you end up at back of the Sinks Flat area where the protected Bat Caves are located and we saw a bat flying around for a few minutes.   We then made a loop to the left of the caves that is about a mile to 2 miles in length and we stayed on a trail and it wandered thru other sink hole type areas and had lots of other flowers like lark spur (purple) flowers etc. And yes we saw lots of Pink Lady Slippers but everyone was respectful and didn't trample too close to get a shot.   We then headed back to the school house gap trail and road where we parked.     All in all about a 7 mile hike and some made a little short cut on an old trail with a avid hike leader back to the trail head (school house gap/scott mountain ) .