10 minute read
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Offers 800 Miles Of Trails
Step from your car, walk a few yards down a leafcovered path. Suddenly the noise of the traffic, even the warmth of the sun, is gone. In their place — quiet, cool. You’re on a trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. In the nation’s most-visited park, there is solitude, even isolation. For those not accustomed to the wilderness offered by following some trails, there are easy walks that offer glimpses of the primeval forest. For other more adventurous, or experienced, hikers, there are challenging trails that lead to some of the most dramatic views the Park has to offer. The Smokies ’ 800 miles of trails range from wide pathways, which served as the thoroughfares for the mountain dwellers of pre-1930, to steep, well-trodden portions of the Appalachian Trail. There has been much public and private investment in trail maintenance in recent years. In 2012, Friends of the Smokies established the Trails Forever endowment thanks to a matching gift from the Aslan Foundation in Knoxville. Today, the $5 million endowment funds a full-time trail crew in Great Smoky Mountains National Park to reconstruct and rehabilitate some of the Park’s most impacted trails. “We are so excited about the progress the Park’s Trails Forever crew has made on Alum Cave Trail just in the last year,” said Brent McDaniel, director of marketing for Friends of the Smokies. “Since 2008, our $5 million Trails Forever endowment has helped fund rehabilitation projects on Jakes Creek, Forney Ridge, Ramsey Cascades, Chimney Tops and now Alum Cave trails. The hard work this crew does and the fact that these improvements will last 75-plus years is truly incredible. These are some of the Park’s most heavily traveled trails so it just makes sense for us to give back and take care of our hiking trails wherever we can.” The three-year effort to rehabilitate the Chimney Tops Trail ended in 2014. In 2015, Great Smoky Mountains National Park celebrated the recent completion of the Chimney Tops Trail restoration project. More than 1,000 volunteers provided more than 14,000 hours of labor on the project. The popular Alum Cave Trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park is now undergoing full-scale restoration. The Trails Forever crew will focus restoration efforts on several targeted locations along the 5-mile trail to improve visitor safety and stabilize eroding trail sections. The restoration work will require temporary trail closures throughout the twoyear process.
Short nature walks For the beginning hiker, shorter, less-strenuous day hikes are plentiful throughout the Park. These, like the longer trails that work their way through the backcountry, offer many miles of nature walks and self-guiding trails to Park visitors. These trails are usually no longer than 1 mile (round-trip) and many serve as educational guides to the Park and surrounding area. Along the way are scattered resting places, usually with a spectacular view for extra measure. The Sugarlands Trail, which begins behind the Sugarlands Visitors Center (2 miles south of Gatlinburg on U.S. 441), gives an introduction to the natural history of the area, as well as history about its human inhabitants. Elkmont, Smokemont and Cosby are some, but not all, of the self-guiding nature trails that give visitors a chance to see and learn more about the mountains than they would just riding through them in a car. One at the Chimneys Picnic Area is a favorite for Continue to page 22
From page 21 wildflower enthusiasts in the spring. Several spots along Laurel Creek Road from the Townsend entrance to Cades Cove serve as entrances to trails and nature walks that offer strolls or workouts. In one spot, at the beginning of the Bote Mountain Trail, those with a bit more physical conditioning can walk up the road bed (it’s to the left) while others can simply wander up Schoolhouse Gap Road beside a quiet mountain stream (across the bridge and to the right where the larger parking area is located). Farther up Laurel Creek Road, just down from Crib Gap, is the beginning of several trails, some easy, others more vertical. One of the trails offers a 2-mile “short-cut” to the higher reaches of Bote Mountain Trail, which offers a workout without exhaustion. Andrews Bald, Abrams Falls and Laurel Falls get you into the wilderness, but not too far. These fairly easy trails range in length from 2 to 6 miles and do have some spots where more-than-average energy will be expended.
Tougher trails Some hikes — Deep Creek, Shuckstack and Snake Den Trail, to name just a few — challenge all but the most adventurous hiker. These climb up (or down depending on your direction) 4,000 feet or more. The more difficult trails have their own rewards — walking through virgin forests, passing into the clouds, being enveloped in the mists swirling around the highest of the Smokies ’ peaks, walking on new-fallen snow or through blooming blackberry bushes still dripping with morning dew. Area residents have their own favorites among difficult trails. There is the 5-mile hike to Spence Field, one of the Smokies ’ famous and mysterious balds. Those still able to breathe normally after that last push to the top may continue on to Rocky Top, which lent its name to the song popular with the Tennessee Volunteers. From there you can continue on to the other two peaks of Thunderhead, the dominant mountain on the skyline in the distance when approaching Maryville by U.S. 129 from Knoxville. There is Mount LeConte, available by several trails. Entrances to trails leading to LeConte (which is topped with a lodge and shelter) are on transmountain U.S. 441 (the Alum Cave Trail) which leads to Cherokee, N.C., and off the Roaring Fork motor trail off Airport Road in Gatlinburg at Cherokee Orchard (Rainbow Falls and the Bullhead). Rainbow Falls is worth a hike itself with its views from the log bridges approaching the high spill. The Bullhead features quick altitude and good views of Gatlinburg.
The high country If you wish to go to the high country without having to climb there, try Andrews Bald trail, which starts at the Clingmans Dome parking lot. Or turn the other way, paralleling the paved trail to the dome’s tower and walk along the crest of the Smokies, through high-altitude forests as though you were in Canada. On parts of the trail you can gaze from both sides into the mountains and valleys as far as the eye can see. If a step into history is more your cup of tea, try some walks just out of Townsend. There is the popular hike to the Walker Sisters cabin where five sisters lived — first with their father, then alone — and became almost totally self-sufficient. Reaching the trailhead is probably the hardest part of this walk. From Townsend, go into the Park, turn left at the “Y” toward Elkmont and Gatlinburg. At Metcalf Bottoms go straight through the picnic area, across the ridge and onto the gravel road. Turn right at the Little Greenbrier School road and park at the schoolhouse. The trail is the road with the gate. About a mile from that gate stands the homestead. The house where the sisters lived and worked is still there with its charred stone fireplaces. Just inside Cades Cove, on the right past the parking area and scenic overlook with display, is one of the paths to Rich Mountain. Once again, a brief walk on a well-worn trail can lead you up beside a mountain stream, complete with cascade, if there is enough water. This trail is steep in places but well, if not heavily, traveled. One switchback has a spectacular view of Cades Cove below, well worth the exertion once you get there. At the top, the trail joins the road to a spot where one of the Smokies ’ fire towers used to sit. The National Park Service sold most of the towers and the Rich Mountain tower is no longer. The trail follows the ridgeline a ways and then heads back down to the Cove. The trail comes out by Elijah Oliver’s cabin, one of the cove’s many scenic spots, and then returns to the parking lot through the gently rolling forest floor. If you have only a few hours, not the whole day, try the Chestnut Top Trail just inside the Park boundary near Townsend. The trail begins just at the “Y” intersection. Don’t be dismayed by the steepness of the
From page 22 trail at the very beginning; this is the only really hard climbing you will have to do.
Sights and sounds During the spring and summer, slowpokes climbing will have an added bonus. The mountainside is filled with wildflowers, many just at eye level. You don’t even have to stoop over to see them. Once you reach the top of the hill, you walk through pine forest, across bright green mosses, into deciduous forests. Listen to Laurel Creek far below. There is Two hikers walk across first bridge at trailhead to Chimney wildlife along this trail, particularly birds. You can walk Tops during a sunny and cool morning in Great Smoky as far as you desire, then turn around and return to Mountains National Park. your car. At about 4 miles, the trail intersects with the School house Gap Trail. This very crooked road will eventually lead you to the Twenty-Mile Creek ranger station and, a bit farther on, Fontana Lake. Abrams Creek For a day-trip into the wilderness where you are never far from “civilization” but probably will see few people, take the Foothills Parkway to Abrams Creek ranger station. Go to Walland on Lamar Alexander Parkway (U.S. 321) and turn right onto the parkway. At the end of the finished section, Chilhowee Lake will be in front of you. Turn left and then take another immediate left. Travel through Happy Valley, one of the most picturesque residential communities in Blount County. Watch for the sign to the ranger station. Park just beyond the ranger station — a little shed nearby can provide you with brochures, which will explain much about the Park. You have two directions you can now take. Go through the campground and up Cooper Road, one of the major roadways into Cades Cove before the Park was established. This is a nice stroll and can take those with stamina all the way to Cades Cove (about 11 miles). But take a side trip, which will take a bit of scrambling, if you’re even the least bit adventuresome. At Campsite No. 1, turn right and go up and over the mountain to Abrams Creek. This man way (it isn’t big enough to be a real trail by Park standards) goes up and down beside one of the Smokies ’ most scenic rivFrom the ranger station there are several hiking trails and some of the most picturesque streams. You’ll cross a lot of them on most of the trails here. What is locally known as the North Shore can be reached across Fontana Lake by strolling across the dam or by renting a boat. Here, too, there is a possibility of seeing some of the Park’s wildest wildlife. Otters have been reintroduced into the Park in this area. There are also beavers and bears, even the possibility of a bobcat. Many of the trails in this area are really old roads that settlers on the North Shore trail used. There is also a new shore trail that winds alongside Fontana Lake, a welcome walk during hot days. Few of the trails, even on the traditionally crowded Fourth of July and Labor Day, are really crowded. There will still be (with the possible exception of Alum Cave Trail) long moments of strolling alone in the midst of verdant foliage. There will still be moments of wonder at the wildlife, which can suddenly dart from the forest across the trail. Be you a beginning hiker, an experienced one, or everything in between, there are trails in the Park that will let you experience the real Smokies. National Park offers 800 miles of trails ers. There is a campsite about 2 miles along this walkway that provides a swimming hole just a few feet away. Another interesting walk begins across from the ranger station. You will cross Abrams Creek on a log bridge and enter a meadow where houses once stood.
Calderwood Highway If you have a full day, try traveling by car along the Foothills Parkway to Chilhowee Lake and then turn left onto Calderwood Highway (U.S. 129).
