Article Options

National park features 800 miles of trails hikers could get lost in

Sunday, April 24, 2005 7:19 AM CDT

GATLINBURG, Tenn. (KRT) - Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a hiker's nirvana with more than 800 miles of trails and 17 peaks that top 6,000 feet.

In fact, only two national parks have more miles of hiking trails: Yellowstone and Yosemite.

You can hike to the peaks, mountain views, grassy balds, mountain streams, old-growth forests, waterfalls, wildflowers and sunsets on the park's 150 trails.

The Chimney Tops - they look like two chimneys rising from a mountain - are a favorite destination of hikers.

The imposing twin spires arise from the north wall of Sugarland Mountain and tower over the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River. They rise about 50 feet above the wooded mountaintop.

It is a four-mile round-trip hike that is rated moderate to strenuous because the first half is uphill and climbs about 1,300 feet. Of course, it's 1,300 feet downhill on the return.

The view from the top is worth the sweat of the climb.

Allow yourself about 90 minutes to reach the top.

The trailhead lies off Newfound Gap Road (U.S. 441) between Gatlinburg and Cherokee, N.C., on the Tennessee side of the park.

It is 6.7 miles south of the Sugarland Visitor Center and 7 miles north of Newfound Gap.

The Cherokees called the Chimney Tops "duniskwalguni" or forked antlers. The early European settlers likened them to chimneys, especially when a hole was discovered down the center of the taller spire.

The chimneys are an outcropping of the Anakeesta Formation, a Precambrian rock layer of slates, schists and phyllites. The dark gray rock, a half a billion years old, is tinted with rust from the oxidation of iron sulfide in the rock.

The trail to Chimney Tops, also called The Chimneys, is steep and strewn with small boulders. Two old trails were actually pieced together in 1963.

The first mile to Beech Gap is part of an old road. It connects with Road Prong Trail that will take you to the Appalachian Trail 2.3 miles away at Indian Gap.

The Chimney Tops Trail then climbs up a steep gulch with a 600-foot elevation gain.

The creek is splashy with small waterfalls. You will see lots of rhododendrons and the spring wildflowers are very showy.

Hiking is through two islands of smooth-barked beech trees and small coves with yellow buckeye and yellow birches.

As you climb the switchbacks, the forest becomes hemlocks, red spruces, mountain laurel and more rhododendrons.

The trail requires some hand-over-hand scrambling to reach the barren top of the taller of the Chimney Tops. It is linked to the shorter chimney by a narrow ridge of rock. The top at 4,755 feet offers great views of nearby Mount LeConte to the north and 360-degree panoramas.

Be warned: The trail can get very crowded, especially on weekends.

This is one of the most popular day hikes in the park. In fact, the Chimney Tops and four other trails - Laurel Falls, Abrams Falls, Rainbow Falls and Alum Cave Bluff - together produce half of the park's trail traffic.

Another popular day-hike is a 10-mile out-and-back trek to Alum Cave Bluffs and Mount Le Conte. It is 2.4 miles to Alum Cave Bluffs (there is no cave) and 4.9 miles to Mount LeConte at 6,593 feet.

The overhanging bluffs - a 100-foot-high recess beneath a rocky ledge of slate that juts outward - are on the southern flank of Mount LeConte at an elevation of about 5,000 feet.

It is the shortest but steepest of five trails that ascend to the top of Mount Le Conte and is rated a strenuous hike.

Inspiration Point en route to Alum Cave Bluffs offers views of the wooded valleys below and Little Duck Hawk Ridge with its sheer cliffs to the west.

The trailhead is off Newfound Gap Road not far from the Chimney Tops Trailhead. The most historic trail in the park may be Road Prong Trail, a moderately rugged 6.6-mile round-trip walk from the Indian Gap off Clingmans Dome Road.

The trail - described as wet, rocky, steep and very pretty - may have been used by Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto. It was once the main route through the mountains.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park also features a shorter option for would-be hikers: Quiet Walkways.

The trails are short paths off major park roads. The trails are easy, usually a half mile or so. Most loop back to where you started.

They are designed to get visitors out of their cars and away from traffic and crowds.

Studies show that most park visitors won't stray more than a quarter mile from their vehicles.

For more information, contact Great Smoky Mountains National Park, 107 Park Headquarters Road, Gatlinburg, TN 37738; 865-436-1200. The Internet site is www.nps.gov/grsm.

Another source of information is "Hiking Trails of the Great Smoky Mountains: A Comprehensive Guide" by Kenneth Wise (University of Tennessee Press, $18.95).

The Smoky Mountain Hiking Club, with 600-plus members, has organized hikes since it was founded in 1924. Membership and a hike schedule are available for $14. For more information, contact the club at P.O. Box 1454, Knoxville, TN 37901; 423-558-1341. Check out the Internet site at www.greatsmoky.com.