Great Smoky Mountains

“ Because its achievements are both fundamental and effective, and because it treats a splendid mountain area as a lasting and deserving homeland for plants and animals and human beings, the story of Tremont culminates this history of the Great Smoky Mountains. For here is one of the ways the Smokies can be best used: as a wild refuge and a living laboratory where young people may discover the deeper meaning of the park’s past and why, for the future, there is a park at all. ”

“ There is no true alpine tundra in the Smokies, such as we might find atop certain mountains in New York and New England and atop many mountains in the West. But alpine experiences aplenty await us here for the climbing. They can be had on ridges, peaks, and, even pinnacles, from atop which we gaze out over a forested sea of peaks. It is a rare reminder of the mantle of forest that once lay unbroken over the eastern United States. It is often said that when Europeans first encountered America, a squirrel could walk from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi without touching the ground! ”

“ Seemingly endless ridges, forests, mountain streams, waterfalls, and wildlife attract hundreds of thousands of travelers each year to Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the Tennessee-North Carolina border. Many are drawn by a long procession of wildflowers and shrubs bursting into bloom in the spring and by the colorful foliage of the hardwoods in the fall. Thousands hike the park’s many trails, which range from short spurs to the 110 kilometers (70 miles) of the Appalachian Trail that runs through the park. ”

“ You will begin in Cades Cove amidst oak and pine forests which also grow in northern Georgia. Your walk will end atop Clingmans Dome in spruce-fir forests characteristic of Maine and Canada. In between you will hike beneath the canopies of oak-hickory-red maple forests that characterize Virginia, and the northern hardwoods of Massachusetts. The reason for this localized insight into the whole of the eastern United States forest types is the vertical rise of the Great Smoky Mountains. The Smokies’ highest peaks stand 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) above its lowlands. ”

“ Going up the side of the knob, we quickly leave the forest and begin tunneling through dense thickets of rhododendron and mountain-laurel. Trees don’t grow here at all. On top, the shrubs become smaller and we can look out over them. Perched on the end of a spur from the side of a giant valley, we look up to high ridges on both sides and down to a stream far below. Is it our imagination, or do we really hear that stream whispering to us of the humid, secret world way down there under the big trees? For many minutes we are lost in contemplation of the Smokies’ green-blue spaces. ”

“ Each, through its interaction with plants and animals, affects the total fabric of Smokies life. Far below, the trees of a cove forest march up a stream valley; on the slopes above them spreads a mantle of oaks. A narrow ridge far down and off to the right bears the dark green of pines. Nearer, we see the ragged lower edge of the spruce-fir forest, where it fingers into the northern hardwoods below it. But we sense an overall unity because each kind of forest merges into the next, creating an unbroken mantle that lies over all the ridges as far as the eye can see. ”

“ The early pioneers of the Old Southwest had conquered the lowlands of North Carolina and Tennessee with relative ease. The higher country of the Great Smoky Mountains, set into the Southern Appalachians like a great boulder among scattered stones, would yield less quickly.
The pioneers began, as the Cherokees had done, with the most accessible land. The level Oconaluftee valley, stretching its timbered swath from present-day Cherokee, North Carolina, on up into the forks and tributaries of the Great Smokies, beckoned with at least some possibilities to the hopeful settler. ”

“ This Tennessee valley of the Middle Prong of the Little River does not differ widely from Deep Creek or Greenbrier or Cosby or most of the other branches and hollows of the Smokies. Each, including Tremont, penetrates the hills, divides them like a furrow, and protects its own rocky, racing stream with a matting of thick, green growth. Nearby Cades Cove and North Carolina’s Cataloochee might guard a few hectares of lush, hill-cradled pasture or farmland, but even these are stamped with the clear, cool air and feel of the Great Smoky Mountains. ”

“ This is Great Smokies virgin cove forest, a type unrivaled in the northern hemisphere for combined variety and size of trees. Here it is cool, shady, and moist. The tree trunks shoot high above into the canopy, which intercepts most 26 of the sunlight and seems to enclose us in a private world. The ground around us is covered with the greenery of small plants. We hear bird songs but cannot see the singers.
The peace and grandeur of the forest are interrupted by a slight movement off to our right. In the leaves beneath a large, rotting log a tiny shrew restlessly sniffs with its long nose. ”

“ The whole region seems to be covered with a mantle of dark forest, excepting an occasional clearing or patch of lighter-colored grass. Very few rocky ledges appear, so that the slopes are smoothed and softened by the generous vegetation. The atmosphere also tends to the same result, the blue haze, so rarely absent, giving the names both to the Blue Ridge and the Great Smoky Mountains. This haze softens everything and imparts the effect of great distance to peaks but a few miles away. ”

“ Despite this tremendous impact of human land use in the Smokies, however, about forty percent of the park’s 209,000 hectares (517,000 acres) constitutes the East’s most extensive virgin forest. Forest recovery is now well underway throughout the park despite the former blight left by logging and subsequent forest fires, and landslides, and other forms of erosion.
At one time no sharp edge separated two aspects of nature in the Great Smokies: man and the wilderness. Cherokee Indians lived here in ways ironically similar to those of the whites who would soon displace them. ”

“ All the world of ecology comes to the Great Smokies ... Scientists and students come to observe the richness and density of life forms; the misplaced species; the dramatic impacts of catastrophic landslides and fire scars; and the unknowns, those tantalizing areas of knowledge still withholding their secrets despite careful scrutiny. What really happened here during the glacial periods? Where were the trees then? How much forest burning did Cherokees use for game and vegetation management purposes before Europeans came? Speculations aside, what is the true story behind grassy balds? ”

“ Sudden weather changes are characteristic of the Great Smokies. Be prepared to get wet and either hotter or colder. Rain, wind, and cold can become a deadly combination before you recognize your own symptoms of hypothermia. Rainstorms are typical of warmer weather, so always carry raingear in late spring and summer.
Stay on park trails. If you become lost, do not leave the trail. Particularly, do not follow a stream because dense undergrowth will rapidly tire you. Most trails intersect others within a few kilometers and signs at the junctions can put you back on course. ”

“ The mountains are everywhere, punctuated by restored settlements, by Cades Cove, Mingus Mill, Cataloochee, and Little Greenbrier. But this is not the full story for there are many, many Great Smokies, a double fistful of which may be just for you. There are as many Great Smokies as there are people who come here intent on discovering their secrets: the folklorist’s and amateur historian’s Smokies; the trout angler’s Smokies; the Smokies of the backpacker, day-tripper, and trail walker; the botanist’s, ecologist’s, and birder’s Smokies; and the automobile tourist’s Smokies. ”

“ The fact that the National Park Service maintains 1,450 kilometers (900 miles) of trails says something about the Smokies and hiking: it’s an East Coast hiker’s paradise. Trails come in all lengths and levels of difficulty, for the handicapped, children, super-athletes, old folks, day hikers, and long-distance backpackers. The latter of course means the Appalachian Trail, which threads the Smokies crest on its way from Maine to Georgia. More on the AT below.
The intimacy of the Smokies wilderness surprises many who are attracted by the stunning mountain scenery. ”

“ When we sense the end of the storm, we head toward our day’s goal, the top of the Smokies. The deciduous forest rapidly turns into a coniferous one, the beech, birch, maple, buckeye, and others giving way to a nearly solid stand of spruce and fir. ”

“ The coves of the Southern Appalachians thus may have formed a refuge for many temperate species of plants, including some forced southward by the spreading ice. This is a factor in today’s biotic richness or abundance in the Smokies.
On top of the Smokies and other high mountains of the Southern Appalachians, tundra (treeless areas) may have developed as winter climates became too cold and windy even for spruce and fir, which is the situation today on high peaks of the Adirondacks and White Mountains in New England. ”

“ Perhaps we humans could be considered semi-aquatic ourselves, so strongly does water attract us. In the Smokies people love to visit waterfalls, plunge into favorite swimming holes, play among the rocks and white water, and fish up and down the streams. One of my favorite activities is simple stream-watching. Just pick a sunny rock, sit down with your lunch, and watch. That’s all there is to it. Trout will eventually grow bold enough to come out of hiding. Birds fly out of the dense forest to feed in the 43 sunlit shrubs along the stream. ”

“ Whenever Smokies streams or rivers are flooded it is very dangerous to attempt crossing them. Don’t try it. Revise your itinerary instead.
What about fires today? Lightning-caused fire is as ancient as the mountains themselves and has always been a part of the forest’s life process. Some tree species actually depend on fire for regeneration, such as the pin cherry. And the heath bald shrubs, such as blueberry and mountain-laurel, prosper after a light burn. Fire is necessary as well to dozens of flowering plants which quickly seed new forest openings the fire creates. ”

“ A climb up the great height of Old Smoky, the Cap Enfumé of the French, lands one almost in the clouds; and on a clear starlit night when the moon is in the heavens, a view is spread out below that can never be forgotten. The walks and drives in the lovely valleys, with towering mountains ever visible—the white gypsum at their base—a shimmery halo above ”

“ Camping is a good way to get into the spirit of the Great Smoky Mountains. The National Park Service maintains ten developed campgrounds in the park: at Smokemont, Elkmont, Cades Cove, Cosby, Deep Creek, Look Rock, Balsam Mountain, Cataloochee, Big Creek, and Abrams Creek. ”

“ First Indians, then settlers, then the lumber companies. What was the impact of this new element, this two-legged animal? How did the forest and its life change? Is it now returning to its former state? In trying to answer these questions we may learn something about the ecological role of people not only in the Smokies but also in much of eastern North America, most of which resembled the Smokies in its forest cover when people first arrived on the scene.
For at least several thousand years groups of humans have lived in the lowlands around the Great Smokies. ”

“ Clouds drift over the mountain waves. Like the clouds of many yesterdays, they have dropped their burden of excess moisture on the forests, maintaining the wetness that encourages the lush plant growth of the Smokies. Then, through a break in the clouds, the sun finally 29 shines, sending renewed charges of energy into the forest and ultimately through all the life of the forest. ”

“ It has up-to-date information and a shaded relief map of trails and popular trailheads in the park. Detailed trail descriptions are found in the Sierra Club Totebook, Hiker’s Guide to the Smokies, sold at visitor centers and in area book and outdoor equipment stores.
From mountain balds (above) to rocky canyon ledges (below) , Smokies trails introduce you to aspects of the park invisible to motorists. Afoot, you experience the intimacy of natural detail that makes the Smokies internationally renowned. ”

“ The shortage of arable lands forced people into and finally onto the mountains in search of a plot of ground that would produce a livelihood. And so settlement came to the Great Smokies, gradually working its way up the mountainsides to the limits of cultivation. Grazing was eventually pushed beyond those limits all the way up the mountain to the balds. Combined overgrazing, overfishing, destructive logging practices, and overhunting would soon turn dense wilderness into a ravaged landscape. ”

“ She paused often, and looked idly about her: sometimes at the distant mountains, blue and misty, against the indefinite horizon; sometimes down at the cool, dense shadows of the wooded valley, so far below the precipice, to which the steep clearing shelved; sometimes at the little log-cabin on the slope above, sheltered by a beetling crag and shadowed by the pines; sometimes still higher at the great 'bald' of the mountain, and its mingled phantasmagoria of shifting clouds and flickering sheen and glimmering peak. ”

“ Each animal and plant drops out at a different limit as you gain altitude, but more than half of your journey will be through deciduous forest, of the cove hardwood type or oak woodland. Smokies forests are rich: there are more tree species here than in all of Northern Europe. ”

“ Renowned for its splendid forests and containing a rich variety of plant life, the Great Smokies region has long been regarded by prominent botanists as the cradle of the present vegetation of eastern America. ”

“ The Smokies is an ancient land-mass. Its plantlife may have evolved uninterruptedly for more than 200 million years. Continental Ice Age glaciation did not reach this far south, and as the Atlantic Ocean has repeatedly inundated most of North America, the Smokies remained an island. ”