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.

Six of us hiked Porters Creek this past week, and although it was a cold and overcast day, we weren't disappointed. We saw all of the early spring bloomers, save Bloodroot, as well as many others (see Photo Album). The hillsides were covered with fringed phacelia, although I estimated they were about 60% finished. The fact that Porters Creek was covered with snow the week before most certainly added to the early climax for the Phacelia. Trillium luteum, T. grandflorum, and T. erectum were all in full bloom, with many large displays of them. We saw just a few showy orchis, several in bud on the hike in that were open by the time we hiked out. Just a few dwarf crested iris blooming, but many buds.

I saw more dwarf ginseng than I ever remember - years ago when I first hiked Porters Creek, they were mostly in abundance on the trail just before Fern Falls, but now I saw them from start to finish all along the trail. I was surprised at how many wildflowers were blooming along the upper part of the trail past Fern Falls - it is up over 3000 feet, so we saw trout lily (finished at the lower elevations), rue anemone, one hepatica in bloom, and all the trilliums.

At Fern Falls, I saw the one lone jack-in-the-pulpit for the day. Looking a little cold. There were quite a few wood anemones also, but they never perked up and really opened.

Last week, Wednesday March 18, we hiked Scott Mountain trail in the Smoky's from it's junction with Schoolhouse Gap (2000 ft) to it's junction with Crooked Arm (3400 ft), and back. We saw some early wildflowers blooming, but none in profusion. We saw bloodroot, spring beauty, toothwort, hepatica, and trailing arbutus. This past week, March 25, I walked up the first 1/4 mile of Chestnut Top trail, and saw the above as well as chickweed blooming, and yellow trillium, T. grandiflorum, phacelia, and stonecrop in bud. In this next week, if it doesn't get too cold this weekend, there should be lots of wildflowers popping out, especially below 2500 ft. Look at the photo album for Scott Mountain to see the early bloomers we saw on that hike last week.

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.