American Travel Journal

Monday, July 4, 2016

Newfound Gap to Charlies Bunion on the Appalachian Trail - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The eight mile round-trip hike from Newfound Gap to Charlies Bunion along the Appalachian Trail is one of the more popular summer hikes in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. While the route climbs over 1,000 feet and then descends nearly 600 feet to reach the rocky outcrop, the spectacular views are worth the effort. With the entire route above 5,000 feet, the temperature is usually 10 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than Gatlinburg. While I hiked the trail on a weekday afternoon in late June 2016, I met dozens of people along the route. On the way to Charlies Bunion, I visited with a retired couple who now volunteer as trail maintainers. Their work to keep the vegetation cut back from the trail is greatly appreciated. While there were a few hikers on the outcrop when I arrived, they all departed within about 20 minutes and left me with an opportunity to enjoy the solitude I seek in the mountains.

This is considered a strenuous hike. Make sure you have sufficient water and food to spend an entire day on the trail. Storms can quickly develop in the mountains, leaving the trail muddy and the rocky outcrop slick.

I wrote about a previous hike to Charlies Bunion here.

Topographic map with GPS route

Elevation profile

Trail sign doesn't mention Charlies Bunion

First opening in the forest provides...

...this view of Beech Flats Prong watershed in North Carolina

Another view of the North Carolina mountains

Lots of rocks and roots on the trail

Tree roots utilized as steps

View from the second overlook

Sweat Heifer Creek Trail junction - AT continues straight

Ridgetop trail

Newfound Gap Road from the third overlook

Path over and through sedimentary rock

Trail levels out atop Mt Ambler

The Boulevard Trail junction - AT turns to the right

Icewater Spring

Tennessee ridges from the trail

Horseshoe Mountain

Hikers atop Charlies Bunion

View northeast toward Douglas Lake

Single-track approaching Masa Knob

Late Catawba Rhododendron (Rhododendron catawbiense) blossom

Mount Le Conte to the west northwest

Spur trail to Charlies Bunion - AT turns right

Northbound AT at spur trail

Charlies Bunion above the single-track

Looking back up the trail from Charlies Bunion

Mount Kephart

Mount Le Conte

View northwest

Lester Prong watershed

The Sawteeth

The trail continues around the outcrop

Entry to Great Smoky Mountains National Park is free.

The park website is https://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm.

The Appalachian National Scenic Trail website is https://www.nps.gov/appa/index.htm.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy website is http://www.appalachiantrail.org/.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Post 500

Blogger has kindly informed me that this will be my 500^th blog post, so I thought I'd commemorate the occasion with a different type of post.

My goal for the blog is twofold. First, I want to provide information that will encourage and motivate people to seek out places they would like to visit and then to go. Second, I want to provide a sense of what it's like to be there, especially for people like my parents who can no longer travel.

Some of the many legacies my parents have provided for me include a love of reading, a love of travel, and a sense of place. I grew up and still live near Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Some of my earliest recollections are of camping in Cades Cove in the Smokies and later at Myrtle Beach, SC. When I was a kid, my parents took the family on four road trips across the country to visit family on the west coast. In those days before the Interstate Highway System was essentially completed, imagine two adults and four children in a sedan pulling a travel trailer on a two lane road. I'm sure it wasn't a vacation for my mom, but I loved it. Along the way, we visited several of the western national parks. Including other trips over the years, they have taken me to all 50 states. I am so blessed that they have provided me with so many wonderful memories in childhood and beyond.

While I've been taking photographs for many years, I only started documenting our travels on a blog after my wife set a "bucket list" goal for us to visit all the then 58, now 59, national parks in the United States. I've been posting about our travels across America since May 2012 or 50 months. In that time, we've been able to visit 24 national parks, 41 other National Park Service units, 3 national forests, 3 national wild & scenic rivers, 1 national conservation area, and numerous state, county, and city parks in 24 states.

I'm often asked to identify my favorite national park. Probably the best response is "the next one." However, I'm very partial to Great Smoky Mountains, most likely because it is the park of my youth and is still the nearest park. Others high on my list include Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Lassen Volcanic, Olympic, and Yellowstone. With the National Park Service centennial this year, I hope you will heed their slogan and Find Your Park.

Oh, the Places You'll Go! - Dr. Seuss

The National Park Service website is https://www.nps.gov/index.htm.

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Spruce Flats Falls - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Spruce Flats Falls is one of my favorite places in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I've previously written about my visits in April 2012, March 2015, and March 2016. The most recent post includes a topographic map with the trail superimposed on it as well as an elevation profile and images of most of the signs and turns along the route. I made the short hike to the falls again in late June 2016. While the volume of water was greatly reduced from my spring visits, Spruce Flats Branch still had a respectable flow. After meeting over a dozen people on the trail, I expected to find several people at the falls. However, I had the place to myself for several minutes before a newlywed couple from Indiana arrived.

Entry to Great Smoky Mountains National Park is free.

The park website is https://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

Cataloochee - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Cataloochee section of Great Smoky Mountains National Park consists of the Little Cataloochee, Big Cataloochee and Caldwell Fork valleys in North Carolina. Walled in by Mount Sterling Ridge on the northwest, Cataloochee Divide on the southeast and Balsam Mountain to the southwest, the area was relatively isolated from the rest of North Carolina.

Today, it is still isolated with only two gravel roads providing access to the area. The easiest route is by way of Cove Creek Road near the interchange of I-40 and US 276 at exit 20. The first 5.7 miles of Cove Creek Road are paved, but the remaining 1.2 miles up the mountain to the park entrance at Cove Creek Gap are gravel. From the park entrance, the route continues as a narrow gravel road for an additional 1.7 miles before reaching an intersection. Turning left leads to an asphalt road into Big Cataloochee. Continuing straight on the Old Cataloochee Turnpike provides gravel road access to Little Cataloochee via a hiking trail. The paved road continues for 4.5 miles into Big Cataloochee before reverting to gravel for an additional mile up the valley. From I-40 to the south end of the valley by way of Cove Creek Road is just over 10 miles with about three miles of gravel road.

A much slower alternate route to Cataloochee begins at I-40 exit 451 in Tennessee. Follow Waterville Road for two miles to a four-way stop sign. Turn left onto Mt Sterling Road. Continue onto the gravel Old Cataloochee Turnpike for about 14 miles (16 miles from I-40) passing the Little Cataloochee trailhead to reach the paved Cataloochee Road at the northern end of Big Cataloochee valley. Expect this route to take well over an hour.

Although home to hundreds of people over a century ago, very few structures remain in Cataloochee. We saw five of the remaining structures during our June 2016 visit.