The Forney Ridge Trail begins easily enough at the base of the paved trail to the Clingmans Dome observation tower. The first of the trail consists of a series of leveled, rocky platforms, put together by the national park service apparently due to the previously hazardous, steep, rocky slope. At the end of these stairs the trail comes to a fork with a side trail that leads on to the Appalachian Trail about a half mile up (and not far past that to the observation tower at Clingmans Dome), and the Forney Ridge Trail continuing on to the left, down along the ridge for which it is named.