South Carolina trails · Palmetto Trail - Blue Wall Passage
Palmetto Trail - Blue Wall Passage
A 3.0-mile out-and-back in South Carolina, with 1,505 ft of climbing. Reaches Vaughns Gap.
Elevation profile
Most of the climbing sits in the final third — 58% of the ascent, between mile 2.0 and mile 3.0. It climbs almost continuously, with little descent to recover on.
3-D terrain
USGS 3DEP ELEVATION × ESRI WORLD IMAGERY · VERTICAL ×1.5
Reaches
- Vaughns Gap (pass)
Getting there
Palmetto Trail - Blue Wall Passage access. About 1 h 06 min drive (35 mi, 1 of them unpaved) from Spartanburg. 35.17823, -82.29462 · directions
Daylight at the trailhead
On October 14, 2026 — the day this page was generated — first light reaches this trailhead at 7:08 a.m., the sun rises at 7:34 a.m. and sets at 6:55 p.m., and the last usable light fades about 7:21 p.m. (EDT) — 11 h 21 min of daylight. At about 2.7 mph plus 30 minutes per 1,000 feet of climbing, the 6.1-mile round trip takes roughly 3 h 45 min, so leaving the trailhead at sunrise puts you back around 11:19 a.m. — 7 h 36 min before sunset.
Loop options
- Waterfall Trail + Palmetto Trail - Blue Wall Passage — 0.9 mi loop, 94 ft gain
Nearby trails
- Palmetto Trail - Poinsett Reservoir Passage — 1.1 mi
- Saluda Mountains Passage of the Palmetto Trail — 6.2 mi
- Pinnacle Pass Trail — 16.1 mi
- Jones Gap Trail — 16.1 mi