A long time ago: Smokey Mountains
Few years back a friend and I hiked through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee, USA. I’ve never logged that hike anywhere and I figure here is as good as place as any.
We hiked on the Appalachian Trail which bisect the national park running on the border of Tenness and North Carolina. Seventy miles of the 2,158 mile (3,473 kilometer) Appalachian Trail cut through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, entering southward at Fontana Dam and exiting northward near Davenport Gap . The trail remains among the crestline of the Great Smoky Mountains throughout this portion of its length, passing just behind the observation tower at Clingmans Dome, the highest point anywhere along the trail (at 6,625 feet [2,019 meters]). Shelters are placed approximately equidistant of one another, at locations roughly equivalent to one day of backpacking from one shelter to the next. While spending the night there is free, unless determined to be thru-hiking (which the national park determines as anyone starting a minimum of fifty miles [eighty kilometers] and ending at least as far outside of the park) it requires a permit obtainable through the park service to stay in the shelters.
Enjoy the photos!
welcome back, evan! i love the smokies, and i’ve been on the AT in there as well. i would love to hike the whole thing one of these days.
Comment by alley — October 3, 2007 @ 12:36 am