After climbing the paved trail to Clingmans Dome in late October 2016, we hiked another short stretch of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail or AT. As we had in Shenandoah National Park, we utilized two vehicles to avoid having to retrace our steps. We hiked north on the trail to Collins Gap late in the afternoon. The trail obviously sees a lot of use and is well worn in many places. With a bit of care, almost anyone with the stamina to climb the paved trail up to Clingmans Dome could hike down this two mile section to the small parking area at Collins Gap. We did hike past Collins Gap a few hundred feet to a point where a short social trail leads to Clingmans Dome Road and then walked back to the parking area.
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| Topographic map with GPS route |
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| Elevation profile |
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| Sign at Clingmans Dome pointing the 200 foot connecting trail to the AT |
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| Besides denoting location on the AT, this sign marks the beginning of the Mountains to Sea Trail |
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| One of the few distant views on the trail |
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| Mount LeConte from the same vantage point |
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| The trail is the width of the ridge or is the ridge the width of the trail? |
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| One of the few places where the trail goes around instead of over the hill |
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| Trail narrows to single track |
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| American Mountain-Ash (Sorbus americana) |
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| Uprooted tree covered in new growth |
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| Rock has been added to reduce erosion on the trail |
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| Blowdowns left this single tree standing upright |
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| The mountain version of "rolling up the sidewalks" |
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| Within sight of Clingmans Dome Road |
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| View from Collins Gap above the trail |
Entry to Great Smoky Mountains National Park is free.
The park website is https://www.nps.gov/grsm.
Thank you for this post. We hiked from Collins Gap up to Clingmans Dome, but this was the one place I found that indicated that you could get to the AT from the Collins Gap parking area. Fun hike with elementary school aged kids.
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