Nine years later, when the 1984 North Carolina Wilderness Act went into effect, the original 14,033 acres increased to the present 17,013 acres. Joyce Kilmer Slickrock shares a common boundary along the Unicoi Mountains with the Citico Creek Wilderness in the Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee. Portions of the Joyce Kilmer Slickrock Wilderness Area are actually in the Cherokee National Forest, although the majority of its lands are in the Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina. The two dominant watersheds in the wilderness area are the Little Santeetlah Creek and Slickrock Creek, which are joined by a common ridgeline at their head-waters. Their basins are steep and rugged, with elevations ranging from only 1,086 feet at the mouth of Slickrock Creek to 5,341 feet on Stratton Bald.
Rock outcrops are common, and a network of streams dissect the terrain.
Inside their sheltered canopy, the atmosphere is decidedly different from other forests. It is quieter, the birds so high in the treetops that their songs are hard to hear. The understory is markedly different, too, not nearly so lush or overwhelming as in second-growth forests still evolving. Tall trees form columns and arches that seem to draw thoughts and energy skyward. A soft carpet of bright green moss and multihued lichens soften our earthbound existence.