Hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

 

 

 

About the Authors

 

Liz Etnier

 

Mike Etnier

 

Spring Wildflower Hikes in the Smokies

 

Gregory Bald

 

Roundtop

 

Schoolhouse Gap

 

Chestnut Top

 

Defeat Ridge

 

 

Return to Hiking in the Smokies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recent Hikes

 

 

Little Bottoms – October 10, 2007 – Nineteen of us started hiking out of Abrams campground, in the SW corner of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. You can find this hike description, and a map of the trails in my Day Hiker’s Guide.

 

We drove on Foothills Parkway and cut through Happy Valley to get to the campground, and the views of the mountains in the morning mist were spectacular.

 

After we had hiked about a mile on Cooper Road trail, six of us left the group to hike on Little Bottoms trail. The trail is in very good condition at this time, following extensive trail maintenance by the NPS to repair many eroded sections that had been there for years.

We saw very few wildflowers on this hike, due in part I imagine to the extreme drought we are experiencing in east Tennessee. However, we did see a few white turtlehead plants.

 

We hiked Little Bottoms to its intersection with Hatcher Mountain, then crossed Abrams Creek to the Hanna Mountain trail. Abrams Creek was the lowest any of had seen it in years, and we were amazed to be able to rock hop across it.  It was a fairly warm day, so one of us opted to wade across in bare feet.

 

The fall foliage was just beginning to show at the lower elevations, and we had some pretty colors on Hanna Mountain trail. The trail itself is in extremely good condition, and provided a soft under footing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I found a few plants of purple, or field, milkwort (Polygala sanquinea), a flower I don’t remember seeing before, although it is listed as common in Wildflowers of Tennessee by Carman (2001).

We also saw lots of “Hearts a’busting” (a Euonymus) – these plants have had more berries on them this year than I have ever seen before. The surprising thing about these fruits is that nature has chosen to put magenta and orange together in the pod and seeds.

 

We finished this 8-mile hike by continuing down Rabbit Creek trail, coming once again to Abrams Creek at the ranger station. Although there is a bridge across the creek, it was quite warm by this time so we all waded barefoot across the creek.