The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a United States National Park located in a region of the Appalachian Mountains referred to as the Great Smoky Mountains, in a portion of east-central Tennessee and southwest North Carolina. With over 150 hiking trails extending for more than , within its boundaries, including a seventy-mile segment of the Appalachian Trail, hiking is the most popular activity in the national park.nps.gov
Development of hiking trails in the national park
As plans to create a national park in the eastern United States began to unfold in the 1920s, specifically in the area of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina, various organizations began the process of procuring lands and constructing for the eventual national park. At the same time, the Great Depression had wrought havoc among the nation's people, leaving many homeless and unemployed. One of the organizations then-president Franklin Delano Roosevelt created to get Americans working again, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was instrumental in the development of the hiking trails and campsites in the national park. Many of the hundreds of miles of trails in the park were dug by the CCC in its formative years—even those still in place today.
The logging era also played a major role in the development of hiking trails in the Smokies. During the early 1900s, lumber companies began using trains to haul timber out of the mountains, which allowed them to penetrate further up the valleys of the major watersheds. At the height of the logging boom, more than 200 miles of rail lines traced through the mountains. After the lumber companies rolled up their tracks, the CCC began converting the old railroad beds into roads and hiking trails. The Little River, Jakes Creek, Goshen Prong, Middle Prong, Lumber Ridge, West Prong, Big Creek, Baxter Creek, Eagle Creek, Hazel Creek, Forney Creek, Hemphill Bald and Balsam Mountain trails are all examples of former railroad beds being transformed into recreational trails.Doran, Jeffrey J. (2026), Ramble On: A History of Hiking,
Other hiking trails were, in another incarnation, in use hundreds of years in the past. Before the settlement of Anglo-Americans, largely from Scotland and Ireland, in the area of today's Great Smoky Mountain National Park, the region was a small portion of the expansive Cherokee territory. The Cherokee often traveled over the mountains via established routes for trading and reaching hunting grounds away from their homes. Over the years with the steadying encroachment of white settlers, many of the old Cherokee mountain roads were adapted to the uses of the new settlers and, eventually, a few of these were converted over to some of the hiking trails in the national park.http://sherpaguides.com/tennessee/great_smoky_mtns_np/hiking_trails.html
Prior to its establishment as a national park, the coves and valleys surrounding the park were dotted with small farms and settlements. In order to communicate and conduct trade between settlements and outside towns, the pioneers established an extensive network of trails and wagon roads. Several of those routes now exist as park trails. The Schoolhouse Gap and the Cooper Road trails in the Cades Cove area, as well as the Little Brier Gap Trail in Little Greenbrier are prime examples of old wagon roads being converted into footpaths. Originally constructed by the residents of Sugarlands and Gatlinburg, the Huskey Gap Trail was first used by employees of the Little River Lumber Company to travel to and from their jobs in Elkmont. The trail was later used by children from these same communities to attend a log schoolhouse at Huskey Gap, located near the present-day intersection with the Sugarland Mountain Trail.
Local settlers also blazed trails that allowed them to graze livestock along the grassy balds that once prevailed atop the crest of the Smokies. As populations grew around the base of the mountains, homesteaders resorted to driving cattle, sheep and goats into the mountains to feed on the rich grasses that thrived atop the balds during the summer months. This in-turn allowed them to use the increasingly limited land space in the valleys for growing crops. Roughly midway through the nineteenth century, Cades Cove residents began driving stock into the mountains using routes that are still used today, such as the Gregory Ridge Trail to Gregory Bald, the Anthony Creek Trail to Russell Field, or the Bote Mountain Trail to Spence Field. The Sweat Heifer Creek Trail was also used to herd cattle up to Sweat Heifer Ridge near Newfound Gap.
In addition to the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps, as well as the mountain routes of the Cherokee Indians and homesteaders, various hiking clubs have also worked to improve upon currently established trails and to construct entirely new trails in their own right. Perhaps the most popular of these, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, which promotes the conservation of the Appalachian Trail, works through an affiliated club to maintain the trail within the national park. Other similar groups perform similar functions on trails throughout the park.
Hiking trails of the national park Of the more than 150 hiking trails in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the majority of traffic centers on a few of the shorter trails located just off the main highway, U.S. Highway 441 (Newfound Gap Road). The lengthier, more isolated trails are much less frequented, though, at any one time, very few hikers are completely alone in the park.
Trails in the park cover all types; Short, self-guided nature trails are found off the highways in purposely diverse areas of the park, while longer, strenuous backpacking hikes are available along the Appalachian and various other primarily highland trails. Some trails are paved, some lead to waterfalls, others to overlooks, and still others lead to more trails.
The 900 Miler Club Hikers who complete all 150 trails within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and apply for membership are called "900 Milers" and are entered into the list of The 900 Miler Club. They've recorded and completed each trail within the Smokies and turned in their application to the group. For a small fee they can purchase a badge, magnet or sticker showing their accomplishment as well. The current unofficial total of the club members is 705 as of 9/9/2021. The fastest known time (FKT) for completion of the 900 Miler Club is by Jeff Woody with a time of "33d 8h 51m 0s" completed on 8/25/2020.
Cross-country trails Perhaps the most famous trail in the world (certainly in the United States), the Appalachian Trail bisects the national park, for most of its length within the park running on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina. Another lesser known, more recently constructed footpath, the Mountains-to-Sea Trail, begins (or ends) at the Kuwohi Observation Tower, and runs, as the name suggests, from North Carolina's mountainous border with Tennessee, to the Atlantic Ocean at Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
Appalachian Trail: Seventy miles of the Appalachian Trail cut through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, entering northward at Davenport Gap and exiting southward near Fontana Dam. The trail remains among the crestline of the Great Smoky Mountains throughout this portion of its length, passing just behind the observation tower at Kuwohi, the highest point anywhere along the trail (at ).https://web.archive.org/web/20060515225206/http://www.appalachiantrail.org/site/c.jkLXJ8MQKtH/b.774897/k.E4B1/Tennessee.htm 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. Mountains-to-Sea Trail: Though only of the planned trail is completed, North Carolina's statewide trail is intended to stretch from the mountains of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to the state's Outer Banks on the Atlantic Ocean. The segment of the trail within the national park extends for twenty-five miles (forty kilometers) and is three-fourths completed, starting near the summit of Kuwohi. Since this part (and many other portions) of the trail is composed largely of other pre-existing trails, it is navigable for much of its existing length.http://sherpaguides.com/north_carolina/mountains/long_trails/mountains_to_sea_trail.html
Trails: Cades Cove Cades Cove is the most visited area of the most visited national park in the United States.https://web.archive.org/web/20060714064331/http://eerc.ra.utk.edu/sightline/V3N1/Trapped.html Though most of these two million visitors each year don't veer very far away from the one-way loop road that traverses the valley, hiking trails accessible from the road are nonetheless still often busier than most.
Abrams Falls Trail: The Abrams Falls Trail, often clogged with visitors to Cades Cove, is the most popular trail in the area. It leads to the most voluminous waterfall in the national park, under which many summer patrons enjoy swimming in its large natural pool. The trail continues beyond the waterfall for to connect with Little Bottoms Trail and backcountry campsite 17. A total hike of will lead to the trail head at Abrams Creek campground.nps.gov This is a much more difficult trail than the section from Cades Cove. Campsite 17 is fairly popular and much of the trail provides good access for fishing. Gregory Bald Trail and Gregory Ridge Trail: The national park service only maintains two balds in the park: Andrews Bald and Gregory Bald. Two trails provide access to the grass bald, one of the largest in the national park. The [round trip] Gregory Bald Trail isn't in Cades Cove itself, but Parsons Branch Road, which provides dayhikers access to the trailhead, leads one way out of the cove, while the Gregory Ridge Trail [round trip] is just out of Cades Cove, on Forge Creek Road. Though the views that it offers are available year-round, Gregory Bald is most noted for the flame azaleas that bloom wildly in late June. Rich Mountain Loop Trail: Rich Mountain dominates the Cades Cove valley. A one-way gravel road leads out of the national park over Rich Mountain, though this road is surprisingly lonely. The loop trail, though, gets a bit more traffic. Extending from its lone terminus at the foot of the Cades Cove Loop Road, the trail skirts just behind the popular John Oliver Cabin before ascending Rich Mountain, offering a few views down into the Cades Cove below, via a three trail path.
Other trails in the area Crooked Arm Ridge Trail Grave Gap Trail Rich Mountain Trail Scott Mountain Trail
Trails: Cherokee Orchard/Roaring Fork The Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail is a one way paved roadway accessible only via Cherokee Orchard Road just out of the small resort city of Gatlinburg. The area's proximity to Gatlinburg lends it to a relatively high number of visitors during mid-day in the peak tourist seasons and on weekends, though dayhikers usually concentrate at Grotto and Rainbow Falls.
Three of the trails in this region lead to the summit of Mount Le Conte, one of the most popular destinations for hikers in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Here, the LeConte Lodge provides the only commercial lodging within the national park and annually sells out all of its rooms, which contain no electricity or running water, months in advance. The mountain is also popular for its vistas at Myrtle Point and the Cliff Tops.