There's a lot to see, to hike, to photograph, to write about. These are attempts at taking all of it in.
The Rockies of Colorado and Wyoming are fantastic, but I missed my mountains.
Yesterday I returned to the Smokies after a summer away from them. Though they are certainly not as dramatic as the Teton range, and about half as high as the towering peaks of the Rockies, the Smokies are far and away my favorite mountains, and one of my favorite places period. The Smokies are very Tennessee, very Southern, very beautiful, and very much home.
I did not go to Cades Cove, my favorite place in the park. I’ll save that for another time when I can give it the full day it deserves. Instead, I drove in from Townsend (Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, and Gatlinburg constitute my no-fly zone) and then took Little River Road to the Sugarlands Visitor Center. The theater was undergoing maintenance, so no film for me to watch this time. From there I headed up to Newfound Gap, consulted my hiking book, and decided that the hike from Clingman’s Dome to Siler’s Bald was the one for me.
Round trip, the hike was around 9 and a quarter miles. You take the ½ mile paved walkway up to the summit of Clingman’s Dome and then get on the Appalachian Trail heading west for about 4 miles, losing around 1000 feet in elevation that you have to regain later if you want to get back to your car. Almost all of the hike is more than a mile above sea level, and the views along the way are some of the best in the park.
The AT is a narrow and rugged trail through here, never more than a yard wide, heading purposefully from peak to peak as it winds along the spine of the Smokies. The traffic is light up here. I only encountered a handful of people in the 5 ½ hours I spent on the trail. Silence often prevails, broken by birds, wind, thunder, and the occasional airplane high above. Sometimes you’re surrounded by forest, others you find yourself atop the ridge with clear and sweeping views to either side. Siler’s bald is a great place to rest a while and look back up to the peak of Clingman’s Dome (and realize you have to walk all the way back up there). Consider this hike highly recommended.
I would have seen even fewer people had the Smoky Mountain Hiking Club not been doing trail work. The club maintains the AT for the length of the park, plus another 10 miles south of the park boundary in the Nantahala National Forest, about 100 miles in all. I stopped and talked to a couple of the club members. They tried to get me to work. I said I just wanted to hike. Then one of them said my pants were too clean and that he could trow some mud on them for me. I respectfully declined.
I will be back in the park soon. Cades Cove is next. Then I will really be back in my mountains.
Photos from yesterday can and should be viewed right here.
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