Hiking In National Parks

Gregory Bald (Google Map) is a mountain on the western fringe of the Great Smoky Mountains. It has an elevation of 4,949 feet (1,508 meters) above sea level. The mountain’s majestic summit makes it a popular hiking destination.

Gregory Bald is located along the Tennessee-North Carolina border, between Blount County and Swain County. It rises appx. 3,000 feet above its northern base in Cades Cove, and appx. 3,300 feet above its southern base at Fontana Lake. The mountain is located entirely within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Gregory Bald is a type of mountain known as a grassy bald. Unlike most summits in the Appalachians, which are heavily-forested or culminate in jagged peaks, grassy balds are covered by a thick layer of wild grass. Trees and other foliage are sparse. How and why a summit develops into a grassy bald is unknown. While there is evidence that Gregory Bald was a natural grassy bald, the National Park Service must currently work to prevent the summit from becoming forested.^[1]

Geology

Gregory Bald is composed of a precambrian rock known as Elkmont sandstone.^[2] In a few places atop the mountain, sandstone ruts actually erupt through the thick grass. The Elkmont sandstone is part of the Ocoee Supergroup, which was formed from ancient ocean sediments between 500 million and one billion years ago. Gregory Bald, along with most mountains in the area, was formed appx. 200 million years ago during the Appalachian orogeny.^[3]

History

The Cherokee name for Gregory Bald was “Tsistu’yi,” or “Rabbit Place.” According to tribal lore, the chief of all rabbits— known simply as the Great Rabbit— lived at the summit.^[4] The rabbit, considered by the Cherokee to be sly and mischievous, was a key figure in tribal legends, showing the importance the tribe placed upon the mountain.^[5]

The mountain was listed by Arnold Guyot in his 1856 survey of the Smokies, although Guyot gave it the name “Great Bald’s Central Peak”, and measured its elevation at 4,922 feet.^[6] The name “Gregory Bald” was given to the mountain by Cades Cove residents in honor of Russell Gregory (1805-1863), a prominent Cades Cove settler. Gregory used the mountain to graze cattle during the spring and summer, when the fields in the cove were needed for growing crops. He lived atop the mountain during this part of the year in a circular stone house near the mountain’s summit (the house is no longer standing).^[7] Gregory, who (like most Cades Covers) supported the Union during the U.S. Civil War, was murdered by Confederate guerillas in 1863.^[8]

Access

The summit of Gregory Bald can be reached via several well-maintained hiking trails. From Cades Cove, the summit can be reached via the Gregory Ridge Trail (5.5 miles). This trail begins at the end of Forge Creek Road, which is a gravel road on the Cades Cove Loop just past the Cable Mill area. From Fontana, the summit is reached via the Appalachian Trail and a two-mile connector trail (7.3 miles). From Twentymile, the summit is reached via the Wolf Ridge Trail (7.3 miles).

From the summit, one can see Cades Cove and Rich Mountain to the north, and the Nantahala and Yellow Creek Mountains to the south. Visible to the east is the crest of the Smokies, including Thunderhead Mountain and Clingman’s Dome. Fontana Lake and Shuckstack are discernible to the southeast.

Tags: hiking, smoky mountains

Silers Bald (Google Map) is a mountain in the western Great Smoky Mountains, located in the Southeastern United States. Its proximity to Clingmans Dome and its location along the Appalachian Trail make it a popular hiking destination.

Silers Bald is located on the crest of the Smokies with Thunderhead Mountain to the west and Clingmans Dome to the east. The Tennessee-North Carolina state line crosses the summit, with the mountain split evenly between Sevier County, Tennessee to the north and Swain County, North Carolina to the south. Silers Bald rises appx. 2,500 feet above its northern base near Fish Camp Prong (of Little River), and appx. 3,000 feet above its southern base near Forney Creek.

While Silers Bald was a grassy bald for most of the 19th and early-20th centuries, it was probably a wooded peak before the arrival of European settlers. For this reason, the park service does not maintain the bald atop the mountain (the Great Smoky Mountains National Park currently maintains only two grassy balds— Gregory Bald and Andrews Bald).^[1] A narrow corridor for the Appalachian Trail, which crosses the summit, is kept clear for thru-hikers. There is still a small bald area at the summit, approximately 30 feet in diameter, where the Appalachian Trail makes a 90-degree turn. Several grassy meadows remain on the mountain’s western slope.
Geology

Silers Bald is comprised of Thunderhead sandstone, a small pile of which crowns the summit. This sandstone, part of the Ocoee Supergroup, was formed from ocean sediments nearly a billion years ago. The mountain, like most of the Smokies, was formed some 200 million years ago when the North American and African plates collided during the Appalachian orogeny, pushing the rock upward.^[2]

History

While Silers Bald is hardly mentioned in Cherokee lore, a petroglyph was discovered near the summit in 1917.^[3] The mountain’s elevation is probably recorded by Arnold Guyot during his 1859 survey of the Smokies crest, but under a different name (possibly Guyot’s “Big Stone Mountain,” which Guyot listed with an elevation of 5614 feet and lying somehwere between Mt. Buckley and Thunderhead).^[4]

Silers Bald is named after Jesse Siler, a prominent North Carolinian who grazed sheep and cattle atop the mountain in the 1800’s. Likewise, Siler Bald, in the Nantahala Mountains to the south, was named after Jesse’s brother, William. Albert Mountain, also to the south, was named after Jesse’s nephew, Albert Siler.^[5]

By the late 1800’s, Silers Bald was the far eastern end of a giant grassy pasture that stretched several miles across the Smokies’ western ridge all the way to Russell Field, which overlooks Cades Cove.^[6] The mountain is mentioned several times in Horace Kephart’s Our Southern Highlanders as the last stop before one enters a heavily-wooded wilderness.^[7] According to Kephart, beyond “Hall cabin” (a herder’s shack near modern Big Chestnut Bald, six miles east of Thunderhead):

…there is just one shack, at Siler’s Meadow. It is down below the summit, hidden in timber, and you would never have seen it. Even if you had, you would have found it as bare as a last year’s mouse nest, for nobody ever goes there except for a few bear-hunters. From there onward for forty miles is an uninhabited wilderness so rough that you could not make seven miles a day in it to save your life…”^[8]

Laura Thornborough, a writer who visited Silers Bald in the 1930’s, recalls it as a giant meadow:

Silers is one of the mysterious grassy balds, or mountain-top meadows, and an outstanding vantage point commanding spectacular views.^[9]

Access

The easiest access to Silers Bald is to take the Clingmans Dome tower trail from the Forney Ridge Parking Lot to the tower. From there, following the Appalachian Trail west for just over four miles brings one to the summit of Silers Bald. This leg of the trail is riddled with elevation gain and loss, crossing Mt. Buckley (a knob of Clingmans Dome), Jenkins Knob, and a sparsely-wooded ridge known as “The Narrows”.

At the summit of Silers Bald, an unmarked spur trail winds several yards to a cliff on the northwest slope of the mountain. This cliff offers a 180-degree view of the northern Smokies, with a clear shot of Mount Le Conte to the east and Thunderhead Mountain to the west.

Tags: hiking, smoky mountains

Cades Cove is an isolated valley located in the East Tennessee section of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The valley was once home to numerous settlers before the formation of the national park around it. Today Cades Cove is the single most popular destination for visitors to the park, which is itself the most visited national park in the United States, attracting over two million visitors a year, due to its well preserved homesteads, scenic mountain views, and abundant display of wildlife[1].

Geology

Cades Cove, viewed from the summit of Gregory Bald

Cades Cove is a type of valley known as a “limestone window,” created when erosion weathers through the older Precambrian sandstone and exposes the younger Paleozoic limestone beneath.^[1] More weather-resistant formations, such as the Cades sandstone which comprises Rich Mountain to the north and the Elkmont and Thunderhead sandstones which comprise the Smokies crest to the south have surrounded the cove, leaving it relatively isolated within the Great Smokies. Like neighboring limestone windows such as Tuckaleechee to the north and Wear Cove to the east, the weathering of the limestone produced deep, fertile soil, making Cades Cove attractive to early farmers.^[2]

The majority of the rocks that make up Cades Cove are unaltered sedimentary rocks formed between 340 million and 570 million years ago during the Ordovician period.^[3] The Precambrian rocks that comprise the high ridges surrounding the cove are Ocoee Supergroup sandstones, formed approximately 1 billion years ago.^[4] The mountains themselves were formed between 200 million and 400 million years ago during the Appalachian orogeny, when the North American and African plates collided, thrusting the rock formations upward.^[5]

The fracturing and weathering of the limestone and sandstone in Cades Cove has led to the formation of several caves in the vicinity, the two largest of which are Gregory’s Cave and Bull Cave.^[6] Bull Cave, at 924 feet (281 m), is the deepest cave in Tennessee.[2] Trilobite and brachiopod fossils have been found in Gregory’s Cave.^[7]

History

Early history

Throughout the 1700s, the Cherokee used two main trails to cross the Smokies from North Carolina to Tennessee en route to the Overhill settlements. One was the Indian Gap Trail, which connected the Rutherford Indian Trace in the Balsam Mountains to the Great Indian Warpath in modern-day Sevier County. The other was a lower trail that crested at Ekaneetlee Gap, a col just east of Gregory Bald.^[8] This trail traversed Cades Cove and Tuckaleechee Cove before proceeding along to Great Tellico and other Overhill towns along the Little Tennessee River. European traders were using these trails as early as 1740.^[9]

By 1797 (and probably much earlier), the Cherokee had established a settlement in Cades Cove known as “Tsiya’hi,” or “Otter Place.”^[10] This village, which may have been little more than a seasonal hunting camp, was located somewhere along the flats of Cove Creek.^[11] Henry Timberlake, an early explorer in East Tennessee, reported that streams in this area were stocked with otter, although the otter was extinct in the cove by the time the first European settlers arrived.^[12]

Cades Cove was named after a Tsiya’hi leader known as Chief Kade.^[13] Little is known of Chief Kade, although his existence was verified by a European trader named Peter Snider (1776-1867), who settled nearby Tuckaleechee Cove.^[14] Abrams Creek, which flows through the cove, was named after another local chief, Abraham of Chilhowee. A now-discredited theory suggested that the cove was named after Abraham’s wife, Kate.^[15]

The Treaty of Calhoun (1819) ended all Cherokee claims to the Smokies, and Tsiya’hi was abandoned shortly thereafter. The Cherokee would linger in the surrounding forests, however, occasionally attacking settlers until 1838 when they were removed to the Oklahoma Territory (see Trail of Tears).^[16]

European Settlement

John Oliver Cabin, built c. 1822

John Oliver (1793-1863), a veteran of the War of 1812, and his wife Lucretia Frazier (1795-1888) were the first permanent European settlers in Cades Cove. The Olivers, originally from Carter County, arrived in 1818, accompanied by Joshua Jobe, who had initially persuaded them to settle in the cove. While Jobe returned to Carter County, the Olivers stayed, struggling through the winter and subsisting on dried pumpkin given to them by friendly Cherokees. Jobe returned in the Spring of 1819 with a herd of cattle in tow, and gave the Olivers two milk cows to ease their complaints.^[17]

In 1821, a veteran of the American Revolution named William “Fighting Billy” Tipton (1761-1849) bought up large tracts of Cades Cove which he in turn sold to his sons and relatives. In the 1820s, Peter Cable, a Pennsylvania Dutch farmer, arrived in the cove and designed an elaborate system of dykes and sluices that helped drain the swampy lands in the western part of the cove.^[18] In 1827, Daniel Foute opened the Cades Cove Bloomery Forge to fashion metal tools.^[19] Robert Shields arrived in the cove in 1835, and would erect a tub mill on Forge Creek. His son, Frederick, built the cove’s first grist mill. Other early settlers would build houses on the surrounding mountains, among them Russell Gregory (1795-1864), for whom Gregory Bald is named, and James Spence, for whom Spence Field is named.^[20]

Between 1820 and 1850, the population of Cades Cove grew to 671, with the size of cove farms averaging between 150 and 300 acres (0.6 and 1.2 km²).^[21] The early cove residents, although relatively self-sufficient, were dependent upon nearby Tuckaleechee Cove for dry goods and other necessities.^[22]

The isolation often attributed to Cades Cove is probably exaggerated. A post office was established in the cove in 1833, and Sevierville post master Philip Seaton set up a weekly mail route to the cove in 1839. Cades Cove had phone service as early as the 1890s, when Dan Lawson and several neighbors built a phone line all the way to Maryville. By the 1850s, various roads connected Cades Cove with Tuckaleechee and Montvale Springs, some of which are still maintained as seasonal passes or hiking trails.^[23]

Religion In Cades Cove

The Cades Cove Primitive Baptist Church

Religion was an important part of life in Cades Cove from its earliest days, due in large part to the efforts of John and Lucretia Oliver.^[24] The Olivers managed to organize a branch of the Miller’s Cove Baptist Church for Cades Cove in 1825. After briefly realigning themselves with the Wear’s Cove Baptist Church, the Cades Cove Baptist Church was pronounced an independent entity in 1829.^[25]

In the 1830s, a division in Baptist churches known as the Anti-mission Split occurred throughout East Tennessee.^[26] The split was due to a debate over whether or not missions and other “innovations of the day” were authorized by scripture. This debate made its way to Cades Cove Baptist Church in 1839, becoming so emotionally-charged as to require the intervention of the Tennessee Association of United Baptist. In the end, 13 members of the congregation departed to form the Cades Cove Missionary Baptist Church later that year, and the remaining congregation changed their name to the Primitive Baptist Church in 1841.^[27] The Primitive Baptists, as their name implies, believed in a strict, literal interpretation of Biblical scripture. William Howell Oliver (1857-1940), pastor of the Primitive Baptist Church from 1882 to 1940, explained:

We believe that Jesus Christ himself instituted the Church, that it was perfect at the start, suitably adopted in its organization to every age of the world, to every locality of earth, to every state and condition of the world, to every state and condition of mankind, without any changes or alterations to suit the times, customs, situations, or localities.^[28]

The Primitive Baptists would remain the dominant religious and political force in the cove, their meetings interrupted only by the Civil War. The Missionaries, with a much smaller congregation, would continue to meet on and off throughout the 19th century.

The Cades Cove Methodist Church was organized in the 1820s, probably due to the efforts of circuit riders such as George Eakin. The Methodist congregation, like that of the Missionaries, was relatively small.^[29]

The Civil War

The Grave of Russell Gregory at the Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery

In the decades before the Civil War, Blount County, Tennessee was a hotbed of abolitionist activity. The Manumission Society of Tennessee was active in the county as early as 1815, and the Quakers— who were relatively-numerous in Blount at the time— were so vehemently opposed to slavery that they fought alongside the Union army, in spite of their pacifist agenda.^[30] The founder of Maryville College, Rev. Isaac Anderson, was a staunch abolitionist who often gave sermons in Cades Cove. Blount doctor Calvin Post (1803-1873) was believed to have set up an Underground Railroad stop within the cove in the years preceding the war.^[31] With such sentiment and influence, it’s no surprise that Cades Cove remained staunchly pro-Union, regardless of the destruction it suffered throughout the war (there were some exceptions, however, such as the cove’s affluent entrepreneur and Confederate sympathizer, Daniel Foute).

In 1863, Confederate guerrillas began making systematic raids into Cades Cove, stealing livestock and killing any Union supporter they could find. Elijah Oliver (1829-1905), a son of John Oliver and a Union sympathizer, was forced to hide out on Rich Mountain for much of the war. Calvin Post had also gone into hiding, and with the death of John Oliver in 1863, the cove had lost most of its original leaders.^[32]

Although Federal forces occupied Knoxville in 1863, Confederate raids into Cades Cove continued. A pivotal figure at this time was Russell Gregory, who had originally vowed to remain neutral after his son’s defection to the Confederate cause. Gregory organized a small militia, comprised mostly of the cove’s elderly men, and in 1864 ambushed a band of Confederate marauders near the junction of Forge Creek and Abrams Creek. The Confederates were routed and chased back across the Smokies to North Carolina. Although this largely put an end to the raids, a band of Confederates managed to sneak into the cove and kill Gregory just two weeks later.^[33]

Cades Cove would suffer from the effects of the Civil War for most of the rest of the 1800s. Only around 1900 did its population return to pre-war levels. The average farm was much less productive, however, and the cove residents were suspicious of any form of change. It wasn’t until the Progressive Era that the cove recovered, economically.^[34]

Moonshining and Prohibition

The home of Henry Whitehead and Matilda Shields, near Chestnut Flats

The Chestnut Flats area of Cades Cove, located at the base of Gregory Bald, was well-known for producing high-quality corn liquor.^[35] Among the more prominent distillers was Josiah “Joe Banty” Gregory (1870-1933), the son of Matilda “Aunt Tildy” Shields by her first marriage.^[36] The Primitive Baptists— especially William Oliver and his son, John W. Oliver (1878-1966)— were fervently opposed to the distilling or consumption of alcohol, and the practice was largely confined to Chestnut Flats. John W. Oliver, who was a mail carrier in the cove, often found stills on his mail route and reported them to authorities. Oliver would later deride the image of the moonshiner as an integral part of the mountaineer stereotype:

All these men are public outlaws, and were never recognized as true, loyal mountaineers or as true American citizens, by the rank and file of the mountain people.^[37]

In 1921, Josiah Gregory’s still was raided by the Blount County sheriff. Although it was later revealed that the sheriff was tipped off by a surveyor in the area, the Gregorys blamed the Olivers. On the night following the raid, the barns of both William and John W. Oliver were burned, destroying a large portion of the family’s livestock and tools.^[38] Shortly thereafter, Gregory’s son was assaulted by Asa and John Sparks after a prank-gone-wrong. In response, Gregory and his brother, Dana, hunted down and shot the Sparks brothers on Christmas night in 1921. Both of the Gregorys were convicted of barn burning and later convicted of felonious assault. After serving only six months, however, they were pardoned and personally escorted home by Governor Austin Peay.^[39]

The National Park

Of all the Smoky Mountain communities, Cades Cove put up the most resistance to the formation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The cove residents were initially assured their land would not be incorporated into the park, and welcomed its formation.^[40] By 1927, the winds had changed, however, and when the Tennessee General Assembly passed a bill approving money to buy land for the national park, it gave the Park Commission the power to seize properties within the proposed park boundaries by eminent domain. Long-time residents of Cades Cove were outraged. The head of the Park Commission, Colonel David Chapman, received several threats, including an anonymous phone call warning him that if he ever returned to Cades Cove, he would “spend the next night in hell.”^[41] Shortly thereafter, Chapman found a sign near the cove’s entrance that read {sic}:

COL. CHAPMAN: YOU AND HOAST ARE NOTFY, LET THE COVE PEOPL ALONE. GET OUT. GET GONE. 40 M. LIMIT.^[42]

Cades Cove: John Cable Mill

The “40 mile” (64 km) limit referred to the distance between Cades Cove and Chapman’s hometown of Knoxville. Despite these threats, Chapman initiated a condemnation suit against John W. Oliver in July of 1929. The court, however, ruled in favor of Oliver, reasoning that the federal government had never said Cades Cove was essential to the national park. Shortly after the verdict, the Secretary of the Interior officially announced that the cove was necessary, and another condemnation suit was filed. This time, Oliver lost, with the case going all the way to the Tennessee Supreme Court. Oliver would return to court several times over the value of his 375 acre (1.5 km²) tract, which he said was worth $30,000, although the court awarded him just $17,000 plus interest. After attaining a series of one-year leases, Oliver finally abandoned his property on Christmas Day in 1937.^[43] The Primitive Baptist Church congregation continued to meet in Cades Cove until the 1960s in defiance of the park service, who wanted to develop the land where their church was located.^[44]

For about one-hundred years before the creation of the national park, much farming and logging was done in the valley, as the main source of economic development for the peoples living in the cove, both leading to massive deforestation. At first, in spite of the persistent urgings of the Great Smoky Mountain Conservation Association to maintain Cades Cove as a meadow, the National Park Service planned to let the cove return to its natural forested state.^[45] Nonetheless, on the advice of contemporary cultural experts such as Hans Huth, it demolished the more modern structures, leaving only the primitive cabins and barns which were considered most representative of pioneer life in early Appalachia. As a result, a visitor to the cove may leave with an impression of a technologically backward community. However, in its day, the cove was as well educated and progressive as any rural community in Blount County, Tennessee.^[46]

Historical Structures in Cades Cove

Becky Cable House with molasses still and sorghum press

The National Park Service currently maintains several buildings in Cades Cove that are representative of pioneer life in 19th century Appalachia. It’s important to note that by the time the cove was incorporated, most residents lived in relatively-modern frame houses, rather than log cabins.

The following are listed in the order they are approached along the Cades Cove Loop Road:

1. The John Oliver Cabin, constructed c. 1822-1823 by the cove’s first permanent European settlers. Dunn reports that the Olivers spent the winter of 1818-1819 in an abandoned Cherokee hut, and built a crude structure the following year. The Oliver Cabin was built as a replacement for this first crude structure, which was located a few meters behind the cabin.

2. The Primitive Baptist Church, constructed in 1887. The church was organized as the Cades Cove Baptist Church in 1827, and renamed “Primitive Baptist” after the Anti-missions Split in 1841. The Olivers and Russell Gregory are buried in its cemetery.

3. The Cades Cove Methodist Church, constructed in 1902. Methodists were active in the cove as early as the 1820s, and built their first meeting house in 1840.

The Dan Lawson Place, with cabin built by Lawson’s father-in-law, Peter Cable

4. The Cades Cove Missionary Baptist Church, constructed in 1894. The church was formed from a small faction of Cades Cove Baptists in 1839 who had broken off from the main church due to the debate over missions, which the Cades Cove Baptists didn’t consider authorized by scripture.

5. The Elijah Oliver Place, constructed in 1866. Elijah Oliver (1829-1905) was the son of John and Lucretia Oliver. His original farm was destroyed during the U.S. Civil War by Confederate marauders. The homestead includes a dog-trot cabin, a chicken coop, a corn crib, and a crude stable.

6. The John Cable Grist Mill, constructed in 1868. John P. Cable (1819-1891), a nephew of Peter Cable, had to construct a series of elaborate diversions along Mill Creek and Forge Creek to get enough water power for the mill’s characteristic overshot wheel.^[47]

7. The Becky Cable House, constructed in 1879. This building, adjacent to the Cable Mill, was initially used by Leason Gregg as a general store. In 1887, he sold it to John Cable’s spinster daughter, Rebecca Cable (1844-1940). A Cable family tradition says that Rebecca never forgave her father and refused to marry after her father broke off one of her childhood romances. Various buildings have been moved from elsewhere in the cove and placed near the Cable mill, including a barn, a carriage house, a chicken coop, a molasses still, a sorghum press, and a replica of a blacksmith shop.

Double-cantilever barn at the Tipton Place

8. The Henry Whitehead Cabin, constructed 1895-1896. This cabin, located on Forge Creek Road near Chestnut Flats, was built by Matilda “Aunt Tildy” Shields and her second husband, Henry Whitehead (1851-1914). Shields’ sons from her first marriage were prominent figures in the cove’s moonshine trade.

9. The Dan Lawson Place, built by Peter Cable in the 1840s and acquired by Dan Lawson (1827-1905) after he married Cable’s daughter, Mary Jane. Lawson was the cove’s wealthiest resident. The homestead includes a cabin (still called the Peter Cable cabin), a smokehouse, a chicken coop, and a hay barn.

10. The Tipton Place, built in the 1880s by the descendants of Revolutionary War veteran William “Fighting Billy” Tipton. The paneling on the house was a later addition. Along with the cabin, the homestead includes a carriage house, a smokehouse, a woodshed, and the oft-photographed double-cantilever barn.

11. The Carter Shields Cabin, a rustic log cabin built in the 1830s.

Touring

Cades Cove Visitor Information Center

Cades Cove, though geographically isolated, is today a very popular tourist destination in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A one-way, eleven mile (18 km) paved loop around Cades Cove draws thousands of visitors daily, and can take over four hours to traverse during tourist season. The cove draws attention for numerous black bear sightings, although many enthusiasts make the trip for the abundant hiking access and well-preserved 19th century homesteads. On most days, multiple deer can be seen in the meadows and woods throughout the cove. Popular hiking trails within the cove include the trail to Abrams Falls and the trail to Gregory Bald, the latter named after Russell Gregory, a prominent resident of the cove. In addition to hiking and general sightseeing, horseback and bicycle riding are popular activities.

Tags: hiking, smoky mountains

Chimney Tops (Google Map) is a mountain in the central Great Smoky Mountains, located in the Southeastern United States. It has an elevation of 4,800 feet (1463 m). It is one of the park’s most recognizeable geological structures and a popular hiking destination.

Chimney Tops is a double-capstone knob on the eastern slope of the Sugarland Mountain massif. This massif stretches north-to-south across the north-central section of the Smokies. Mount Le Conte dominates the area immediately east of Chimney Tops, and Mt. Mingus rises to the north. Thus, while the view from the summit is 360 degrees, Chimney Tops is practically “walled in” on three sides.

Geology

Chimney Tops is one of the few instances of a bare rock summit in the Smokies.^[1] Over the centuries, the bedrock atop the mountain has been exposed through natural weathering of the upper layers of soil strata. This rock is mostly Anakeesta Formation metamorphic rock, especially slate, phyllite, and metasiltsone.^[2] The grainy, contorted capstones offer excellent footholds and handholds for climbing.

Like most of the Appalachian Mountains, Chimney Tops was formed 200 million years ago when the North American and African plates collided during the Appalachian orogeny.^[3]

History

The Cherokee name for Chimney Tops is _Duniskwalgunyi_, or “forked antler”, referring to its resemblance to the antlers of a deer.^[4] In the Cherokee legend “Aganunitsi and the Uktena”, the captured medicine man, Aganunitsi, in exchange for his freedom, searches remote parts of the Smokies in hopes of finding the giant reptile, the Uktena, and seizing a powerful amulet from its forehead. In his quest, Aganunitsi searches distant gaps and peaks in the Smokies before he “went on to Duniskwalgunyi, the Gap of the Forked Antler, and to the enchanted lake of Atagahi, and at each found monstrous reptiles, but he said they were nothing.”^[5]

The Road Prong Trail, which follows the stream of the same name at the base of Chimney Tops, is one of the oldest trails in the Smokies. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this ancient path was known commonly as the Indian Gap Trail. In 1832, the Oconaluftee Turnpike was constructed between Indian Gap and Smokemont. This road was expanded during the Civil War by Cherokee leader Col. Will Thomas, running parallel to the modern trail.^[6]

The mountain’s current name was probably given to it by residents of the Sugarlands, a valley to the north of the mountain that was home to a small Appalachian community before the national park was formed. Before the Sugarlands was reforested, Chimney Tops was clearly visible from most of the valley. Local legend even suggested that the top of the mountain was covered in soot.^[7]

Access

By far the most common route to the top of Chimney Tops is the Chimney Tops Trail, which can be accessed from Newfound Gap Road (US-441). While the trailhead is clearly marked, it shouldn’t be confused with the Chimneys Campground, which is a few miles to the north. The trail ends at the foot of the south capstone (the higher of the two), but various unmaintained spurs cross over to the lower summit.

Another route is to follow the Appalachian Trail west from Newfound Gap to the Road Prong Trail. The Road Prong Trail, following the river at the base of the mountain, connects the Appalachian Trail with the Chimney Tops Trail. This route is twice as long as the route from the Chimney Tops parking lot.

While no technical gear is needed, it should be noted that a short climb is necessary to reach the top of the capstones. From the summit, Mount Le Conte and Mount Kephart dominate the view to the east and Sugarland Mountain dominates the view to the west. On a clear day, the Sugarlands valley is visible to the north.

Tags: hiking, smoky mountains

The Laurel Falls Trail is an American hiking trail, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park of Sevier County, Tennessee. The trail ascends Cove Mountain (elev. 4,077 ft; 1,372 m), leading past Laurel Falls, one of the most popular waterfalls in the national park, en route to the summit of Cove Mountain and the Cove Mountain fire tower.

Vital information

• The Laurel Falls Trail is paved over the first 1.3 miles of its course, where it runs just in front of Laurel Falls, the single most popular attraction via trail in the national park.
• The historic lookout tower at the end of the trail is one of only three remaining in the national park, but due to safety hazards is generally not considered safe to climb.
• The trailhead is located off of Little River Road inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, less than four miles from the park headquarters at the Sugarlands Visitor Center.

Landmarks/overlooks

• Laurel Falls
• Old-growth forest
• Cove Mountain lookout tower

Trail synopsis

Trailhead to Laurel Falls

The Laurel Falls Trail is the most trampled, beaten, and worn down path in the entire national park– at least to the waterfall. Because of this the national park service has had to pave this segment trail with a dark concrete, so as to prevent further erosion of the trailside. Furthermore, there is a wooden post at every 0.1 mile, giving the many visitors who walk the 1.3 miles to Laurel Falls an indicator of just how far they have to go. The paved section of the path, while often very crowded, does offer a nice, gentle walk in the woods, accessible to most children, and inasmuch has been designated as a nature trail by the park service. The second-growth forest is rather thick over this period, and is often decorated with a thick laurel thrush, for which the Laurel Branch and her signature waterfall are named. As the hiker approaches the falls, s/he should begin to hear the roars of both tumbling waters and a host of visitors who have made the trip to the surprisingly powerful cascade. Laurel Falls is a 75 foot, multi-level waterfall. The trail crosses over the mid-section of the waterfall via a grip of boulders, as the gushing waterfall sprays mist overhead and dives into a narrow gorge below. Although much has been mentioned of how heavily trafficked the trail can be at times, the waterfall is popular for a reason: it is one of the most magnificent in the national park.

Laurel Falls to Cove Mountain lookout tower

When one stops to consider how wildly popular the short trail to the waterfall is, s/he may wonder whether most patrons to Laurel Falls even realize that the trail does continue on beyond the point where it is no longer paved. In fact, the trail enters into one of the most pristine forests in the national park just about a mile past the falls. The old-growth forest here was never logged (as most forests in the area were), most likely due to the difficulty in transporting materials to and from the isolated region. At the 3.1 mile point, the trail comes to a junction with the Little Greenbrier Trail and continues on along the crest of the Chinquapin Ridge to the top of Cove Mountain. Here, the path comes to an old dirt road, which leads a few hundred yards to the Cove Mountain lookout tower. The tower once allowed visitors views into the surrounding mountainside of the Great Smoky Mountains but is no longer considered safe to mount. It is, however, one of only three remaining lookout towers in the park (not including the fire tower of Mount Cammerer), the other two being at Mount Sterling and Shuckstack. It is back on the main path here that the trail ends, at a junction with the Cove Mountain Trail, which leads back down to the Sugarlands Visitor Center and the park headquarters.

Tags: hiking, laurel falls, smoky mountains