In October 2024, I had the pleasure of visiting Smoky Mountains National Park with several friends. The park, situated in Tennasse and North Carolina, is the most visited national park in the United States attracting more than 13.3 million visitors annually.

Mount LeConte

Our first significant hike was Mount LeConte, which is the highest peak completely in Tennessee standing at 6593ft (2010m), and has the highest relief east of the Rocky Mountains at 5301ft (1616m). We did the Alumn Cave trail, and reached the main summits including High Top and Myrtle Point.

The initial fall views after sunrise were fantastic, but after there weren’t many views until closer to the summit. Compared to a trail like the Grand Canyon or those at Zion, there was not much to keep you entertained on the hike but the views at the top are still worthwhile.

Figure 2.1: View of the Smoky Mountains

Figure 2.2: View from the Alum Cave Bluff

Figure 2.3: View from the LeConte Lodge which is the highest inn that provides lodging in Eastern US

Mount Cammerer

The second significant hike was Mount Cammerer via the Lower Gap trail. The trail intersects with the Appalachian trail, and reaches a peak of 4928ft (1502m). To my surprise, there was snow on the trail in mid-October!

Figure 3.1: Snow along the trail up to the summit of Mount Cammerer

Figure 3.2: More snow along the tail; it was quite cold near the top

Figure 3.3: Interesting firetower at the summit with spectacular views

Figure 3.4: Panorama view at the summit

Cades Cove

Cades Cove was a simple drive-through loop with nice scenic views. After looping around for almost an hour, we eventually got stuck in traffic, and the most exciting part of seeing a black bear appeared!

Unfortunately, the Bear did not turn out great on camera :)

Figure 4.1: Black bear who was not in a very photogenic angle

Cligman’s Dome

Cligman’s Dome is the highest point in the park and is also one of the easiest trails. There is a parking lot nearly all the way to the summit, with only a short walk up a ramp. Since it was below freezing, the ramp up to the dome was pure ice and extremely dangerous to go down, which makes this very short hike the most prone to falling by-far.

Figure 5.1: The ramp to the highest point in the park. At the end it was only half icy, but for the rest it was pure ice and extremely slippery

Figure 5.2: View of the park after sunrise

Figure 5.3: The sunrise was enjoyable with a nice panoramic view

Forbidden Carvens

Forbidden Caverns is located near the Smoky Mountains and were originally used to make moonshine. The cave descends several hundred feet underground, and remains a constant temperature of around 58ºF all-year round. It was an interesting informative tour.

Ziplining

I never went ziplining before, so the prospects of going 500ft above the ground clipped to a steel cable seemed rather terrifying. After doing the trial run, it didn’t seem too bad, but after going to the longer runs it quite scary!

For the longest run, I was told to run a bit to get momentum and not to brake at all otherwise I would get stuck halfway. Of course, I did not follow the instructions, and nearly got stuck in the middle.

As a punishment, on the way back the instructor shaked the zipline steel wire while I was ziplining through it, and I thought that the end of me (my heart rate hit 135bpm while my resting heart rate is usually less than 50bpm) - never doing this ever again!

Figure 7.1: Ziplining backwards with views of the Smoky Mountains

Retrospective

This was a fairly light vacation in terms of physical activity. While the lodge we stayed at was fantastic, my impression was the nearby towns (such as Gatlinburg) didn’t quite suit my tastes. They felt suburban and very car-centric, with a lot of tourist traps and poor facilities for activities like running. In fact, to do extra mileage for running I had to do hill repeats in my lodge’s parking lot as nearby roads didn’t have sidewalks.

The park itself was really nice with the fall foliage, however the views did not compare to west coast national parks such as Zion or Grand Canyon. While I don’t regret visiting the park, for future trips I will favor west coast national parks instead (i.e., Yellowstone or Glacier).