Hiking in the Smokies

Our group of 5 hiked from Newfound Gap in the Smoky Mountains to Charlies Bunion, down Dry Sluice and Grassy Branch to Kephart Prong and the road. We had dropped a car at the Kephart trailhead in the morning. There is a new signpost at Newfound Gap, giving the distance to Katahdin, Maine. We saw several through hikers at Charlies Bunion.

It was a neat wildflower hike, as we saw early March flowers all along the AT to Charlies Bunion, then "walked into April" as we got into lower elevations. The hillsides all along the AT were blanketed in Carolina spring beauty, with masses of trout lilies blooming on sunny banks. I thought it odd that we never saw the intermediate wildflowers, like bloodroot, rue anemone, trilliums, etc. We did see bead lily just coming up, as well as some monkshood, and lots of small turkscap lily foliage. A few clumps of false heliobore were just coming up (I consider these to be late spring flowers at lower elevations). Click on "photos" above for the pictures I took on this hike.

On Dry Sluice we found sunny banks just covered in trailing arbutus, in full bloom, a big surprise given how late it is in April. As we turned down Grassy Branch, we began to see what I consider early April bloomers at lower elevations: Trillium erectum, T. grandflorum, star chickweed. There was a lot of brook lettuce blooming by the streams we crossed, as well as monkshood about to bloom. We never saw T. luteum the entire hike. A large section of Grassy Branch had been swept away, apparently from some big rock slides, and it was a bit difficult to get past that section.

As expected, on Kephart Prong we saw some large masses of T. grandiflorum and T. erectum, as well as several nice big clumps of painted trillium (T. undulatum). Wild phlox was in full bloom, and wild geranium was just beginning to bloom.

Our big disappointment for the day was that we couldn't find the place along Newfound Gap Road where the huge clumps of yellow ladyslippers have always been found. To our dismay, it looked like the area had been mowed and bushhogged recently, and possibly backfilled. We did see a few yellow ladyslippers blooming along Little River Road, as well as enormous crossvines hanging down from trees along the road.

Last week, April 8, 7 of us decided to hike the West Prong/Bote Mt/Finley Cane/Turkey Pen Ridge loop, coming out at Schoolhouse Gap. I thought that since the hike was mostly between 1500-2000 feet that we would see a lot of spring wildflowers. We did see a good variety on Finley Cane trail (see photo album), but little on the others. Most of the early bloomers were evident: rue anemone, bloodroot (almost finished), hepatica (almost finished), wood anemone (just beginning), yellow trillium, a few little brown jug plants, pennywort, a few Bishop's cap, and blue cohosh just beginning to bloom. We saw little else but a few violets just starting to bloom. All in all, it was a pretty disappointing wildflower hike, but it was a gorgeous day, sunny and warm, and we had a great hike.

By this late in April, my friends and I had seen most of the common wildflowers in the Smoky Mountains, so we decided to hike in the Cumberlands. The wildflower seasons in the Cumberlands generally seem to be about 10-14 days behind the Smokies, so we hoped to get early spring wildflowers all over again. We were quite surprised at the quantity of flowers and different species that we saw on the Piney River Trail. We counted over 50 flowering plants and shrubs in about a 4-mile distance on the trail.

The Piney River Trail can be reached by taking I-40 east from Nashville or west from Knoxville and turning south on U.S. Highway 27 to Spring City. In Spring City, you turn west onto TN Highway 68 and park at the Piney River picnic area, just a mile or so out of town. The trail is 10 miles long, and ends at Newby Forest Camp. If you want to start at the far end of the trail, you drive past the picnic area, and turn left on Shut-In Gap Road and follow it to the Newby Branch Forest Camp.

We chose to begin at the picnic area, and after 3 miles, walked across a 102' suspension bridge (pictured above) and two more bridges that cross the Piney River. The trail follows the river, and is in very good condition. About a mile later, after the two smaller bridges, we hiked uphill to a fork in the trail, and took the right fork to see a huge cliff house (see photo above). Along this side trail we were thrilled to see one yellow ladyslipper. Photos from this hike can be seen by clicking on the "photos" link at the top of the page.

Porters Creek is considered by many to be the best trail in the Smoky Mountains for number of species seen and for its huge displays of fringed phacelia. Porters Creek is found at the end of the Greenbrier Road off Highway 321 between Gatlinburg and Cosby. The trail is 3.6 miles long, ending at Campsite 31. Many choose only to hike to Fern Falls which is about 1.8 miles from the trailhead, and indeed, the most magnificent displays of wildflowers are in this first section.

On this day, we were not disappointed in the variety of wildflowers we saw blooming. As we tried to recollect, we counted 42 species that we had seen. The fringed phacelia, however, had either already peaked or had been nipped by frost, as the hillsides normally covered with flowers had few plants blooming. One could look at the flowering stalks and see that most of the buds were gone.

The hillsides were covered with blooming Trillium luteum, T. grandiflorum, T. erectum, wild geranium, Bishop's cap, and foamflower. Pictures of many of the wildflowers we saw blooming can be seen by clicking "Photos," above. Therewasn't a cloud in the sky, and the lighting this day was wonderful for taking photographs.

Today, three of us decided to hike up Old Sugarlands Trail in the Smoky Mountains, and follow an off-trail path to an old stone house that we had tried, unsuccessfully, to see a few weeks before. Earlier, we had a lot of rain, and we had to cross a stream to get to the house, and it was way out of its banks, and impossible to cross. Today, however, the water was low enough for an easy rock hope. We were very surprised at how large the stone house is, and although it is falling down after many years of neglect, it is a wonderful structure (see photo album for "stone house").

We were told that there was an Arrowmont School for children near the house, and that the stone structure was the teacher's cottage. The remains of the apparent schoolhouse foundation can just barely be discerned at the site.

We started at 1500 feet where the trail leaves from Newfound Gap Road, and hiked up the trail to 2500 feet at Bullhead Trail. At the lower elevations, there were a lot of early spring wildflowers in bloom: rue anemone, Halberd-leaf violet, long-spurred violet, sweet white violet, many yellow trilliums (T. luteum), pennywort, and bloodroot. I saw a very few fringed phacelia in bloom. As we got to the higher elevation, we found a bank full of trailing arbutus, just beginning to bloom. Later, at the creek we crossed to get to the stone house, we saw a few Trillim grandiflorum. Check out the photo album for Stone House for pictures of the flowers we saw.