Gatlinburg, TN April 13
Hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains
I know we have stated it before but I am going to repeat it anyway. I am glad we retired early. Hiking up and down hills is still fun but it gets harder and harder on the body; the knees are creakier, the muscles are more sore. When we started walking and hiking in 2013, it was easier. Flat ground hiking on paved trails is still simple; up and down steep grades with roots and rocks just waiting to trip you up gets more challenging every year.
The weather has continued to be in the 70s and sunny; like much of the eastern two-thirds of the country the weekend is forecast to be wet and stormy. We are using the last two days of our time in the Great Smoky Mountains to hike. Thursday we slept in a bit and then headed for Cades Cove, a well-known area of the park showcasing Appalachian life before the park bought out the lands. The thought was to hike to Abrams Falls. Unfortunately, we spent a good part of the day driving. Cades Cove is a an hour and a half drive, plus you add time for the 15 mph Cades Cove Loop Road (and you are lucky if you go 15 mph), for extra slow-moving vehicles, and people stopping to take pictures, etc.
Hiking along Abrams Falls trail
We arrived at the trailhead about 1 PM, a park volunteer said it would be about a four-hour round-trip hike. It isn’t necessary to hike the full distance, we said, and we have viewed plenty of waterfalls, so we headed out anyway. The trail was not too bad, it reminded us of some of the North Shore trails that parallel rapids that head to Lake Superior. Our trail time amounted to about 90 minutes, recognizing we would be taking the same slow route back (there are no reasonable options).
Cataract Falls, Great Smoky Mountains National Park
A quick, short hike to Cataract Falls located by the Sugarlands Visitor Center completed the hiking. Dinner was a salad from the grocery store.
Today, we got up early, planning to hike on three trails along the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. Only one of them, Grotto Falls, did we think we would hike up to the falls- a three-mile round-trip. Of the others, Rainbow Falls would be five miles round trip. The second, Baskin Creek Trail, would be about three miles round trip. All three, however, involved decent elevation gain and trails that are laced with roots and rocks. The hikes are all popular and have small parking lots. An early start is critical. Since Roaring Fork trail is one-way, and slow, it only makes sense to do the trails in order of appearance along the road.
Charred trees along Rainbow Falls Trail, Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Rainbow Falls comes first. It is the longest and rated the most difficult of the three. All three trails are located in the burn area of the November 2016 fire and burnt tree trunks are common along the route. While the trail is within sight of a creek, it was not as picturesque as the others.
Baskin Creek trail, Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Baskin Creek trail was a bit of a surprise. Regrowth from the burn area was most pronounced here and the rocks appeared to be of a different type than otherwise seen. I am sure my brother-in-law in AZ would know the answer, but I will call it a white quartzite and go with that. We turned back after climbing to the peak of the trail, any further would have been a steep downhill which, since this trail is an out and back, translates into a steep uphill on the return trip.
Grotto Falls Trail, Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Finally we got to Grotto Falls. Since we had already been hiking, the parking lot was full and we had to find a space along the roadway a good distance past the trailhead and hike back. Heck, we thought, we just added on another half of a hike just parking the car. Well, no, the trail to Grotto Falls is only 1.4 miles but it took us just under an hour to reach it. Slow, careful hiking had to be combined with traversing five streams and waiting at wider spots on the path to allow returnees and faster hikers to pass safely. The route here seemed to be the most rutted with rocks and roots. I would estimate that there was one section of 500 feet that was smooth and level.
Grotto Falls, Great Smoky Mountains National Park
The big pitch for Grotto Falls is that one can hike behind the falling water. The falls were a disappointment, relatively short and not all that scenic. Others seemed to be excited, though. We turned around and thought our descent would be quicker than the ascent. Again, though, the rocks and roots and waiting for others made the return take just as long as the ascent. By now, the legs and knees were talking to us: “When is this over?”
We did make it down. Remembering that our lodging, Tree Tops Resort, was just at the end of the motor trail, we passed on eating our third lunch this week of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as a picnic and returned to Tree Tops where cold milk awaited us. Lunch was on our patio, listening to Roaring Fork Creek as it flowed past our resort.
Ed and Chris. April 13
Chris Klejbuk and Ed Heimel travel adventure 
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