Escape to the Smokies

Southern Living, Oct 1995 by Rada, Joe

An ironic underuse dogs our most popular national park. About 9 million visitors enter the Great Smoky Mountains National Park each year, double the number at the Grand Canyon or Yosemite, the next most popular parks. Yet most people trudge the same handful of tired, overused trails or venture only a few hundred feet from their cars--or never even stop the engine.

That means much of the park's 520,000 acres--including more than 850 miles of hiking and horse trails, scores of waterfalls, hundreds of species of trees and wildflowers, wildlife from rare birds to elusive trout to lumbering bears, and the ruins of abandoned homesteads and logging towns--see few or no humans for months on end.

I was determined to escape the crowds and find wild, beautiful, less-trammeled places. I wanted to leave congested parking lots far behind, to uncover some secrets. The following finds barely scratch the surface of what's waiting for those who make the effort.

TENNESSEE

Abrams Creek by canoe: A little-known nautical entrance to the park laps its westernmost corner. Slide a canoe onto Chilhowee Lake near the intersection of U.S. 129 and Foothills Parkway near Tallassee, Tennessee, and paddle east along the north shore. Bear left into the mouth of Abrams Creek. Float a peaceful mile of ever-narrower water before bottoming out on the creek's lowest trickling shoals.

Rabbit Creek on foot: Here's a way to beat the crowds to Abrams Falls from the Cades Cove Loop Road. Simply turn the other direction at the parking lot and connect Rabbit Creek, Hannah Mountain, and Abrams Falls trails for an 11-mile loop--all but the last portion of it uncongested. Highlights along the way include log bridges, stands of eastern hemlock trees, myriad ferns, and rock faces pocked with milky-white quartz pebbles.

Uphill to Mount Cammerer: This strenuous hike in the park's northeast section leads to the octagonal Mount Cammerer fire tower. Built from quartzite and lumber quarried and cut on-site by Civilian Conservation Corps workers in the 1930s, the stout edifice served as a dry-season lookout for 31 years. The volunteer group Friends of Great Smoky Mountains National Park restored it this summer, replacing roof, wraparound catwalk, and windows. From Cosby Campground near Cosby, Tennessee, it's a 5.5-mile uphill hike via the Low Gap, Appalachian, and Mount Cammerer trails.

Ramsay Cascades on foot: Some tell me this is a well-known trail, but I've had it all to myself more than once. (It just goes to show that any trail can turn out to be your special secret.) From Tennessee's Greenbrier Cove area the trail I gains elevation steadily for 4 miles, first on a jeep road, then a narrower path that gets treacherously rocky at times, with gnarled, exposed roots to negotiate. Stands of virgin forest and the cool spray of Ramsay Cascades tumbling 90 feet from ledge to ledge are worth the effort.

Little Greenbrier on foot: After such strenuous suggestions, here's an easy option--Little Greenbrier Trail near Wear Cove, Tennessee. From Metcalf Bottoms Picnic Area, share a gravel road with others walking to the one-room, 1880s Little Greenbrier School at 1/2 mile, and to the preserved homestead called the Walker Sisters homesite at 1-1/2 miles. Most will turn back at one or the other. In another 1/2 mile you'll intersect Little Greenbrier Trail and then gradually climb a ridge glimpsing the tall heart of the Smokies to one side and the deep pocket of Wear Valley to the other. Keep going and you'll arrive at Laurel Falls, one of the park's most visited waterfalls, from a direction that few people hike.

NORTH CAROLINA

Road to Nowhere by bike: The roughly 9-mile stretch of pavement leading northwest into the Smokies from Bryson City, North Carolina, ends abruptly at the horseshoe-shaped Tunnel to Nowhere. The road was supposed to continue, but construction halted in 1964. Scarce car traffic means less worry for cyclists riding on the smooth blacktop. Those few who do drive to the road's end and walk through the tunnel find pleasant hiking beyond on trails such as Goldmine Loop, Lakeshore, and Forney Creek.

Hazel Creek by boat: Several North Carolina farming and logging communities were covered or stranded when Fontana Lake was built on the park's southern edge in the 1940s. From Fontana Village Marina ([704] 498-2211, ext. 277), steer northeast to Hazel Creek. For a minimum fee of $35, a marina worker will carry you there in a small boat and pick you up hours or, if you wish, days later. A dirt road rises out of the lake near a site where a town once stood. Hike past crumbling foundations, empty ponds, and rusting machinery, and then continue along the splashing creek. I saw deer and a barred owl, heard whippoorwills, and met only a few people all day.

Cataloochee by horseback: Horse trails vein the park, and wrangling services surround it. Cataloochee Ranch ([704] 926-1401 or 1-800-868-1401) near Maggie Valley, North Carolina, leads rides to wonderfully remote areas. Guided half-day rides ($35) climb through a forest of birch, oak, maple, and wild cherry to Hemphill Bald for fantastic views. All-day rides ($70) venture along the high Cataloochee Divide and down into Cataloochee Valley. I marveled at towering tulip poplars that survived logging and tiny wildflowers that resemble turtle heads with tongues sticking out.