Come hike with me

Take a break for 5 minutes and come along for a little hike in the snow.  Video taken on March 26 in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Fauna Friday

Today we have a couple more pics from Cades Cove, which really is a great place to observe wildlife:

And not-so-wild-life!

Fauna Friday

I'm instituting a new weekly feature here on the blog!  Welcome "Fauna Fridays", wherein I will post a few pics of the creatures I've seen during the week.  Enjoy!

This week's fauna were all sighted on Wednesday while hiking in Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was a cool, dreary, misty/drizzly day - my favorite kind and the best for hiking off-trail!

Red-tailed Hawk (I think) - we saw many hawks while driving & hiking.

The only things we saw more than hawks were deer - lots!

....including a handful of lovely bucks.

11 deer in this field near the Elijah Oliver cabin.

Clingmans Dome sunrise

It's that time of year - the leaves are changing, the nights are turning cold, and the Smokies are as beautiful as ever.  Today we drove out before dawn (it was about 30 degrees and very windy in the higher elevations) to catch sunrise at Clingmans Dome.  Us, and a bunch of other people!  The mountains are *packed*; there are tons of "No Vacancy" signs in Pigeon Forge, Sevierville and Gatlinburg; traffic is a nightmare; people are everywhere like ants.  But if you can fight your way through the madness, you will be rewarded with some exceptional sights.  Here are just some of the 125 pics I took today:

We blazed up the Clingmans Dome trail to beat the sunrise - felt like Dracula racing against the light, and we made it onto the tower about 2 minutes before the sun peeked over the horizon. Then we hiked part of the Appalachian Trail, then headed over to the Shot Beech Ridge Quiet Walkway & followed that out the ridge as far as we could. We finished up with a loop around the Courthouse Rock lower trails.

Wordless Wednesday

Abrams Falls, after "The Tornado"

We hiked out to Abrams Falls in Great Smoky Mtns on July 4th. Hadn't been out there since what we refer to as "the night of the tornadoes" on April 27, when over 50 tornadoes touched down in east Tennessee, including a confirmed EF4 tornado that ripped through the western half of the National Park, impacting (and closing) about 30 miles of trails west of Cades Cove.


Abrams Falls Trail was one of those closed trails (signage photo from our May 3 visit to the trailhead) and it was the first to be re-opened, as it is a massively popular summertime hike for tourists and locals.










If you hadn't hiked to the falls before the storm, the change might not look too impressive, but we could really tell the difference in a few places. Definitely a lot of trees were downed, but the workers did a great job shifting debris and filling in the trail beds.































Where some of the largest uprooted trees created hot tub-sized holes in the trail, log retaining walls were built for stabilization and prevention of erosion.

Looking to the opposite ridge from our trail, out across the river gorge, you can see a path of damage through the forest.



Despite the areas of damage, Abrams Falls Trail is still a fine hike with some pretty scenery.











The Falls were, as always, a beautiful sight.
We arrived at 8:30 am after the 2.5 mile-hike and were the second ones there. On the way back, between the Falls and the trailhead, we passed exactly 100 people.


Now, let me say this:


For the Love of All That is Holy, people..... Trash in, Trash OUT. Leave No Trace.
The amount (and kind) of garbage we found there was a disgrace. Litter seems to be getting worse in general around the park, but I was especially disgusted at the state of affairs on this holiday weekend. Just be glad I didn't pan down in that Falls photo.

Freaky Friday

It has been an exceptionally long time since I blogged, not because I forgot about the blog or didn't have any ideas or adventures to share..... I just took a break. Sometimes it is good to step away from a thing for a while.
Today my blogifying resumes with a post I call "Freaky Friday" because I'm sharing a couple things that are, shall we say, odd.

While hiking yesterday on Old Settlers Trail in the National Park, we encountered 2 very interesting things:



An emerging plant (appears to be mayapple) pushes its way up through the soil and directly into the opening of an empty, sun bleached snail shell, lifting it off the ground. Amazing!







I have seen a lot of hand carved grave markers around the park, many are so old you can't read them anymore.
This is one is somewhat legible but the drawing is still perfect - a hand with index finger pointing up to Heaven. Fantastic!

Baskins Creek Falls hike

On May 18th we hiked out to Baskins Falls, via the east side of Roaring Fork Motor Trail. We've hiked from both sides and have concluded the east trail access is indeed the shorter, less steep route. Each way is just under 1.5 miles.... and from both ways you hike down to go in, up to get out.

At the beginning of the trail is a very picturesque cemetery.



I wonder if this section would make an awesome toboggan run in winter? We stopped just short of this area when hiking in the snow a few months ago while the road was closed.








Giant millipede in defensive coil.






A lot of mountain laurel budding and blooming along the sandy ridge portion of the trail.



After descending, there is a rock-hop crossing of Baskins Creek then another a brief ascent-then-descent to the trail junction. The unnamed footpath heading off back of the sign is the way to the falls. There's another cemetery a bit further along the trail toward Trillium Gap way.


The falls (which are part of Falls Branch and not actually on Baskins Creek) spill over a large rock ledge. The 'best' view is on the other side, of course, which means a bit more rock hopping or log scrambling.




Recent rains made for higher water. Today there was another couple leaving as we arrived, they simply waded across and soaked their shoes. I hopped over most of the way fine, then plunged one shoe in. It dried out surprisingly quick, though. Of all the hiking we've done, that was the first foot soaking I've taken. Not too shabby.
2 pm at the falls. Not the best time of day for photo lighting, better to arrive early in the morning or later in the afternoon. Still.... simply beautiful.

Here is a link to a trail map and elevation profile, though it describes the hike from the west access and it rates the trail as "easy"...... while it may be for experienced hikers, the average tourist/daytripper will more likely find it to be "moderate". We hiked in from the right side as shown on the map below.
Also, here's a brief YouTube video I took at the falls.