Mount Kephart is composed ofa type of slate and metasiltstone known as Anakeesta Formation, which is common throughout the central Smokies. This type of rock is exposed at Charlies Bunion, just to the northeast of Kephart. The Anakeesta Formation rocks are part of the Ocoee Supergroup, formed from ocean sediments nearly a billion years ago. The mountain itself was formed 200 million years ago when the African and North American plates collided and thrust the rock upward during the Appalachian orogeny.
History
Mount Kephart is named after Horace Kephart, an author and early proponent of establishing a national park in the Smokies. The mountain was called "Mount Collins" until the USGS gave it its current name in 1931, reshifting the name "Mount Collins" to the peak between Clingmans Dome and Newfound Gap. Before the 1880s, Mount Kephart was known by various local names. Mount Kephart was probably visited and measured by Arnold Guyot during his survey of the Smokies crest in the late 1850s. The name he used for the mountain, however, is uncertain. Guyot listed two mountains between Laurel Top and New Gap as having elevations greater than — Peck's Peak, which Guyot measured at, and Mount Ocona, which Guyot measured at. The former may refer to Peck's Corner, although Peck's Corner isn't between Laurel Top and Newfound Gap, and Guyot would have missed its elevation by a staggering. Other than Mt. Kephart, the only peak between Laurel Top and Newfound Gap higher than is Mt. Ambler, a knob on Kephart's southwest slope. Laura Thornborough, a writer who made many excursions into the Smokies in the 1930s, recalled a stream now known as Icewater Spring, on Kephart's south slope:
Our party reached a good spring on the Carolina side of Mt. Kephart, about three miles from our starting point. It had been freshly cleaned out and lined with native rock. The water was clear and icy cold."
A CCC Camp operated on the mountain's southern base in the 1930s, the chimney of which remains near the head of the Kephart Prong Trail. During World War II, this camp was used to house conscientious objectors. Also in this area are the remains of a WPA fish hatchery built in 1936.
Access
The Appalachian Trail crosses Mt. Kephart's southern slope en route to The Sawteeth and the eastern Smokies. While the trail misses the summit by just over, several clearings between Mt. Ambler and Icewater Spring have views of the south-central Smokies and Clingmans Dome. There is a backcountry shelter at Icewater Spring for Appalachian Trail thru-hikers. The Jumpoff Trail crosses the summit en route to the Jumpoff, a high cliff on the mountain's northern slope. The view from the Jumpoff is usually greater than 180 degrees, from Mount Le Conte to northwest to the Balsam Mountains to the southeast. The Jumpoff Trail is just a few feet beyond the Appalachian Trail and Boulevard Trail intersection, approximately three miles from Newfound Gap. The Kephart Prong Trail ascends the mountain's south slope to the Kephart Backcountry Shelter. Its trailhead is on U.S. 441 between Newfound Gap and the Oconaluftee Valley. After two miles, the Kephart Prong Trail forks, one way following the Sweat Heifer Trail to Kephart's southwest slope, the other continuing on to Dry Sluice Gap.
