April 30 – To Cherokee, North Carolina

Yesterday was another inside day as it was rather grey and rainy.

We drove across the Newfound Gap Road to the southern / eastern side of Great Smokey Mountain National Park.  It meant a climb of about 4000 feet in elevation over 10 miles for the RV and then a long coast down the other side. There are lots of pullouts on the way up so whenever someone had been following for too long I just let them by.

We stopped at the lookout at the actual Newfound Gap. Since we couldn’t checkin to our next campground until after 1 pm and the trip was too short by the time we had to leave our old one, we just spent some extra time here.

Something doesn’t belong here.

We actually did see two other RVs chugging their way up from the other side.

The Appalachian Trail runs through the parking lot, We are 200 miles from the start and almost 2000 miles to the end.

A local church had a van set up in the parking lot giving out free snacks to the thru hikers. I had read that the hikers call this “trail magic”. It seems to happen at a lot of places that the trail pops out near civilization. Some people offer food, other give rides into town. 

The view to the east. We bundled up because there was a cool wind blowing.

We are now parked at the Flaming Arrow Campground just outside of Cherokee, North Carolina.

It looks like a nice place. About half the sites seem to be seasonal.

I don’t think the pool is quite ready for use yet.

We will be here for a week.

April 28 – Rainbow Falls

We weren’t really ready to do another hard (for us) hike but the weather was great today, lousy tomorrow and we are moving to the other side of the park on Thursday.

I really wanted to do the Grotto Falls trail because you can walk behind the falls and it is nice and short at 2.3 miles. However the access road is closed until Friday (just missed it). To get to the falls via another trail added an extra 5 miles. I just didn’t think we were ready for that kind of distance, especially after yesterday.

Instead we did the trail to Rainbow Falls, which at 5.3 miles return and 1600 feet in elevation is similar to yesterdays. It too eventually goes to the top of Mount Le Conte.

Note to those in Toronto. The CN Tower is only 1800 feet tall so we climbed almost the equivalent of its entire height.

Even though they have similar stats, this trail tired us out much more than yesterday’s. I think it was mainly due to how rocky the actual trail was and that the first 3/4 of the trail was kind of monotonous. Around every corner it looked the same so it made it just seem to go on forever. That said it was still worth it for the falls at the end.  

For the very first part we followed yet another creek.

I rest at every opportunity.

It was the first of these that we had seen this trip although it is still just green.

Once again the parking lot was almost full when we got there, however the trail did not seem crowded. We even had the falls to ourselves for about 15 minutes.

We soon turned away from the creek but it was always within hearing distance. For most of the trail you really had to watch your footing.

I think that was Mount Le Conte Looming over us ahead.

After almost 2 miles of climbing the first interesting thing we encountered was crossing this footlog.

Next was a small falls. If you didn’t read your trail guide properly, you might think that this was Rainbow Falls.

 

There was about 10 minutes more climbing.

By now we were pretty tired of stepping over and on rocks.

And we arrive. This was the view from the trail.

Of course everyone ignored this sign. We are all invincible, aren’t we.

Our lunch spot.

At 80 feet tall, Rainbow Falls is one of the tallest in the park. Nobody actually went close enough for me to get a picture with them in it for scale.

I think you have to be here later in the day when the sun shines directly on the falls to have a hope of seeing a rainbow.

Most of the people that came politely sat off to the side. Not these two. They plopped themselves down right in the middle for a long lunch and nap.

We too had a long lunch and nap before heading back down hill.

We encountered one lady on the trail that didn’t seem properly equipped.

She had on what looked like a sun dress with a floppy straw sun hat and sandals. No water or backpack. She looked like she was out for a Sunday walk in her garden but boy did she fly up and down the trail. She even climbed much higher up the rocks around the waterfall than anyone else.

Part way down we also saw our first large wildlife on a trail. The two deer just looked up at me and then continued eating.

A welcome sight.

We started the trail just after 10 am and got back around 3 pm. After the half hour drive home we fell into bed.

April 27 – Alum Cave Trail

The forecast for Saturday had been kind of bleak so we slept in but when we did get up it was a bright sunny day. We decided to just go into town to do some shopping. What a zoo. We got caught in a 4 mile long, 3 lane wide stop and go traffic jam to try to get back to the turnoff for our campground. I think this is pretty normal here on the weekends.

Yesterday was very gloomy. It seemed like it was going to rain all day but never did. We just puttered around the RV.

The Alum Cave Trail is the “easiest” of several trails to get to the top of 6500 foot Mount Le Conte. At the top there is a lodge where you can stay in one of many cabins. It is very popular to hike up one day, stay there, have dinner and breakfast and then hike down the next day. The problem is to get a booking. I heard one person say that the bookings opened up at noon on some day last October. By 5 pm the entire year had been booked.

The trails are the only way to the top so to get supplies up and trash down, every day a pack of llamas go up and down one of the other trails. They say they use llamas because they are calmer around people than horses or mules and don’t chew up the trail as much.

To get from the trailhead to the lodge is about 5 miles and a 2500 gain in elevation. We only went about half way and up about 1400 feet to just past the Alum Cave.

The Alum Cave is not really a cave but a black slate bluff with a huge overhang with lots of powdery soil on the floor. This is the turnaround point for most of the day hikers like us. Almost all of the people we encountered after the cave where on their way to the lodge.

The guide book I use said this is a great trail but you will be hiking with “billions of people”. All the blogs I had read said to get there early if you wanted a parking spot. We got to the trailhead about 9 am and easily got a spot. I have to say that the trail just did not seem that busy. Most of the time there was no one else in sight. When we got back the parking lot was full and cars were parked on the roadside but we had no idea where they all were.

It was also a cold morning with temperatures in the low single digits Celsius which wasn’t helped by the trail being in the shade in the early morning. We should have gone later, maybe about 11, because on the way back the trail was much nicer in full sun. Also the Cave itself doesn’t get sun until the afternoon.

So we bundled up and headed off surrounded by all the mountain laurel.

The first part of the trail climbs up alongside Alum Cave Creek.

It was a tough day for pictures with lots of very bright and very dark spots in every frame.

The grade was nice and steady the whole way up. We were never really huffing and puffing but by the end we were pretty wiped out. This is the first time, this year, where we really needed a nap after getting back to the RV.

Lots more bouncy log bridges or “foot logs” as the guide book seems to call them.

The trail was a little rooty and rocky in places but in general was in pretty good shape.

The first real landmark on the way up is called Arch Rock. You cross the creek and then climb up through a hole in the cliff.

Using the convenient steps.

My turn.

Then we crossed away from the creek and started climbing the far side valley wall.

Rounding a corner we got our first look at the cave. It is the dark spot on the right.

The guide book called this section a “laurel bald”.

Ever upwards.

To the cave / overhang.

We were going to stop here but we thought we would go one a bit to see if we could find a nice place for lunch and perhaps by the time we got back there might be some sun on the bluff.

From here the trail got narrower and the rocks slipperier. There were cables along the wall at the bad spots.

We only went about another 1/4 mile before we found a lunch spot.

It was not the best place for Jennie because about 6 feet in front of where she was sitting the cliff dropped straight down for several hundred feet.

 

Some dew on the moss in front of us.

Heading back there was a spot where we could see way back down to the parking lot.

When we got back to the cave it was still in shadow. We sat for a while in the sun before continuing on down. As I said the trip back was much nicer because we were in the sun most of the way.

We got back to the car a little after 1 pm and headed back to the RV for a nice long nap.