Hiking the Smoky Mountains national park after a snowfall in late fall and winter

Some of the most magical times to hike in the Great Smoky Mountains national park is just after or during a lights snow in late fall or during the winter.

What is not a good idea is just before or during snow fall to drive up to the upper elevations such as Newfound Gap, Clingmans Dome or even to Alum Cave Trailhead as you may find that the roads in the Great Smoky Mountains national park will close and you will become trapped forcing you to walk out of the park with no cell service in most cases.

It can even be a mistake to get caught in the Roaring Fork area especially along the Roaring Fork Motor trail. I park at the Rainbow Falls Trailhead or even just outside the park gates and hike my way up to where I need to go.

The best way to enjoy hiking in the snow in the GSMNP is to park at a lower elevation and hike your way up to the snow line or spot you wish to go. I also keep a sleeping bag in my car at all times just in case to stay warm.

The picture above was taken yesterday at the Ramsey Cascades Waterfall 4 miles up on the hiking trail in the Greenbrier section of the Great Smoky Mountains national park.

Make sure to dress warm and in layers if you want to hike in the colder months and don't let yourself sweat or overheat too much as this can lead to you becoming chilled and increase your chances of hypothermia.

It is crucial you also wear the correct footwear. Sneakers are a poor choice to hike in the snow and even summer weight boots are not a good idea. I suggest hiking with boots 6 to 8 inches or more with thinsulate to keep your feet warm and gortex to which away the moisture to keep your feet dry.

Gloves area also important as holding hiking poles, cameras, tripods and many other items act as a heat conductor rapidly cooling your hands and your whole body so I hike with 2 pair in the winter. The first pair are very lightweight cotton type work gloves which can be used when your hands are moderately cold and the second pair are waterproof heavy winter gloves.

As far as hats go I pack 2 as well, a lightweight stocking cap and a heavy water resistant winter cap with ear flaps and covering my neck and face. If the hat gets wet from sweat I will reverse the cap or change caps in order to keep myself dry.

I would never think if hiking in snow or ice without 2 hiking poles and putting my hands through the straps. This is a great way to help maintain your balance, test the snow to see if it is on ice and how deep it is, and help slow you down going downhill.

A simple rule of thumb for a beginning or moderate hiker is if you are having problems going uphill, stop. Going downhill will be far worse and more dangerous. Simple stream crossings can also spell disaster when you mix in snow and ice on rocks or wooden logs.

Also remember that slush and even mud can freeze up as the day progresses and it get colder turning what was an easy trip up into a dangerous downhill slide or fall.

Another important tip for being in the Smoky Mountains in late fall, winter and early spring when it is cold is to never sit directly on rocks, logs or the ground. Sitting directly on objects rapidly cools your body down so sit on your backpack, a towel or bring along a small inflatable ring to keep yourself warm and dry. Being cold and wet is no fun and can be dangerous.

It is also important to remember when hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains national park in the winter that even if weather conditions are ideal, it gets dark real early - before 6:00 pm at times in December and January!

Cades Cove will be a amateur astronomer’s paradise for star gazing on October 4th in the GSMNP

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park along with the Smoky Mountains Astronomical Society will offer a free 2 hour stargazing program beginning at 7:30 pm Saturday October 4th - far away from the light pollution of any of the towns and cities of the Smokies.

This is the third years that this exciting program is being held in the GSMNP in Cades Cove where visitors will find several telescopes set up in order to observe the stars, galaxies and constellations in the autumn sky on what will be a moonless night.

Along with the telescopes provided by the Smoky Mountains Astronomical Society, members of the group will be providing their in-depth astronomy knowledge to visitors as well.

The Great Smoky Mountains national park has had 75 years to return back to a more natural state since the park was created. Not only does the inside of the park offer the chance to leave the visual pollution of billboards and neon signs of outside the park behind, much of the park is devoid of noise pollution and at night huge areas of the park are absent of light pollution created by the street lights, lighted structures and lights from cars in the outside world.

Without the light pollution, you have far better night vision so you are able to see far fainter objects in the night sky - even without the aid of a telescope or binoculars. Cades Cove is an ideal location to get away from the light pollution and a perfect place to observe the night skies.

If you are planning on coming to this GSMNP event, be sure to dress warmly, bring either a blanket or lawn chair to sit on and a flashlight - preferably with a red cover. If you have binoculars, bring them along as well as you can use them for stargazing.

Park your car near the exhibit shelter at the entrance to the 11 mile Cades Cove Loop Road where you will be escorted to a nearby filed where the group will be.

So far the weather looks good for Saturday, unfortunately if there is bad weather the program will be canceled.

Newfound Gap Road 441 closed in the Smoky Mountains National Park

Snow and ice has the national park service closing Newfound Gap Road and sending up sander trucks to help stranded cars.

More to follow...

Smoky Mountains National Park Lifts Ban on Backcountry Fires

The National Park Service has announced that the ban on backcountry fires for campers and hikers in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has been lifted.

The fire danger due to extremely dry conditions in the GSMNP caused great concern to the park service causing them to issue a ban on backcountry fires in late August.

Fortunately due to some welcome rainfall and lower temperatures in and around the park, campers and hikers may make fires in the in any of the more than 100 backcountry sites and shelters if they practice safe campfire management.

Gregory Ride Burn in the Smoky Mountains National Park

Another prescribed burn near Cades Cove Tennessee is scheduled for this Friday April 20th in the Gregory ridge area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to help allow yellow pine reclaim where maples and other hardwoods are dominating what was historically a yellow pine forest.

The prescribed burn of 850 acres will close the Gregory Ridge Hiking Trail from Forge Creek Road trailhead to the intersection with the Gregory Bald Trail as well as backcountry Campsite 12. Bower Creek, Forge Creek, and a small fireline across Gregory Ridge will form the boundaries of this burn south of Cades Cove in Blount County, Tennessee.

21 firefighters will be used for containment of the controlled burn and both ground and aerial ignition methods will be used to start the fire. Since it will take several days for the firefighters and park service personnel to be sure that there are no hazards hot spots or dead snags left in the burn area, the area will be closed to hikers for a few days.

Drivers and nearby residents will be able to see smoke in Townsend, Happy Valley, the Foothills Parkway West, and Walland.

Unlike the prescribed burn to take place in Cades Cove used to keep fields form being reclaimed by forest, this burn is meant to open up part of the canopy in the forest which is now crowding out the original dominating species of yellow pine.

In the past naturally occurring forest fires opened the canopy and allowed this species to thrive here but since man intervened and suppressed fires which "cleansed" the forest of more evasive species, the delicate ecological balance was upset. Southern pine beetles that feed on yellow pines further decreased the yellow pine population.

Wall of thanks and public awareness to be unveiled at the Smoky Mountains National Park.

Thanks to a generous gift from the Rotary Club of Knoxville, a special exhibit honoring individuals and businesses that have donated gifts valued between $10,000 and $50,000 to the national park through Friends of the Smokies as well as park education and awareness was unveiled today at the Sugarlands Visitor Center Plaza of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near Gatlinburg Tennessee.

This permanent display is at of the Smoky Mountains parks busiest entrances and the visitor center presently see more than 800,000 visitors a years who will be able to enjoy this illustrate exhibit which is comprised of three panels which measure 7 feet by 14 feet.

The weather for today's unveiling in the park couldn't have been nicer and gave many who took time off today to come to the celebration to spend some quality time in the park today.

While it is wonderful to see you name on a wall, we want all donors of any size who help the Friends of the Smokies to understand we appreciate all donations to help this worth cause.

The Smoky Mountains National Park grows in popularity but is that a good thing?

The figures are in. America's most popular national park the Great Smoky Mountains National Park continues to grow in popularity with 9,416,734 visitors in 2006 - a 2% increase over 2005 but is this good news for the most loved national park?

This is the largest increase in visitors to the GSMNP in 5 years. Even higher gas prices didn't drive away tourists and locals from coming. Even the off season months are seeing huge gains some of which have broken previous national park visitor records but summer peak season was off compared to previous years. Leaf season which runs from September to November picked up the slack for the lower summer visitation numbers.

Camping within the Great Smoky Mountain National Park is also on the increase with approximately 351,000 campers staying in both the frontcountry and backcountry areas of the National Park. Backcountry camping has seen only a negligible increase of a few hundred campers and frontcountry camping has seen an increase of almost 2 percent increase of approximately 6,000 additional visitors.

Visitation increases in 2006 to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park did not increase evenly across all of the park entrances. Where the Gatlinburg TN entrance to the park has seen almost flat increases visitation figures, outlying areas such as Cosby TN, Big Creek TN, Cataloochee NC and the like have seen visitor increases of 5%.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park Visitation by Park Entrance for 2006
Outlying Areas (TN and NC)	2,211,186	+ 5%
Townsend Tennessee	1,482,059	+ 3%
Cherokee N Carolina	2,321,471	+ 2%
Gatlinburg Tennessee	3,402,018	< +1%
Total	9,416,734	+ 2%

So what does all mean to the park, the visitors and outlying businesses in and around the Smoky Mountains?

The park is already stressed. The entire park staff and volunteers are doing an exceptional job with extremely limited resources which are already stretched to the breaking point.

Some of the roads, facilities and trails are badly in need of repair and show signs of overuse or abuse. Where 1 person carelessly tossing a tissue on a trail is bad, dozen or hundreds dropping even small pieces of litter or even organic matter such as apple cores or orange peels in quite another thing.

Walking or hiking off of designated trails is not illegal, but can do serious damage to environmentally sensitive areas. One person who is careful may not do significant damage but again, in numbers many people wondering around off of designated hiking trails can do serious damage to plants as well as the habitats of sensitive insects, aquatic life and animals.

What goes for staying on the "beaten path" also goes for walking through streams and moving rocks and aquatic plants. It is best to cross streams at regular crossings and not to disturb what is in the stream bed.

The areas in and around the Smoky Mountains are growing by leaps and bounds making the top Real Estate agents and real estate brokers and well as mortgage companies and banks in the Smokies quite happy.

Cabin companies, hotels, restaurants and tourist attractions are also seeing increased revenue due to the many people who fall in love with the Smokies many of which come back again and again.

What these 2006 park visitation figures are showing is that more and more people are looking to experience the lesser known and lesser visited parts of the Smoky Mountains National Park. Is this phenomenon because the same visitors have seen the more popular areas of the park and are looking for some place new or are they trying to avoid the crowds of the most visited parts of this national park? I would be interested to know and I am conducting my own straw poll in regard to this.

Since so many businesses in the Smokies benefit because of tourism to the park, I make this plea to donate to organizations such as Friends of the Smokies or have a company picnic in the park after you have everyone spend an hour or two picking up litter in the park. Not only will the visitors who come to the park - your customers - appreciate it, you will feel better doing something good for the environment.