Lonely Planet Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Lonely Planet Lonely Planet

Description

Lonely Planet: The world's leading travel guide publisher Lonely Planet's Great Smoky Mountains National Park is your passport to the most relevant, up-to-date advice on what to see and skip, and what hidden discoveries await you. Hike on the mother of all footpaths, the Appalachian Trail, cycle through the beautiful, historic valley of Cades Cove, and learn how early settlers made ends meet at the Mountain Farm Museum - all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of Great Smoky Mountains National Park and begin your journey now! Inside Lonely Planet's Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Colour maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sightseeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights provide a richer, more rewarding travel experience - history, people, music, landscapes, wildlife, cuisine, politics Covers Great Smoky Mountains National Park, around the park: Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and more The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet's Great Smoky Mountains National Park is our most comprehensive guide to the national park, and is perfect for discovering both popular and offbeat experiences. Looking for more extensive coverage? Check out Lonely Planet's USA's National Parks guide for an in-depth look at all the country has to offer. About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveler since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travelers. You'll also find our content online, and in mobile apps, video, 14 languages, nine international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more. 'Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.' - New York Times 'Lonely Planet. It's on everyone's bookshelves, it's in every traveler's hands. It's on mobile phones. It's on the Internet. It's everywhere, and it's telling entire generations of people how to travel the world.' - Fairfax Media (Australia)eBook Features: (Best viewed on tablet devices and smartphones) Downloadable PDF and offline maps prevent roaming and data charges Effortlessly navigate and jump between maps and reviews Add notes to personalise your guidebook experience Seamlessly flip between pages Bookmarks and speedy search capabilities get you to key pages in a flash Embedded links to recommendations' websites Zoom-in maps and images Inbuilt dictionary for quick referencing Important Notice: The digital edition of this book may not contain all of the images found in the physical edition.

Sujets

• USA
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: Lonely Planet Global Limited
• Date de parution: 01 mars 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781788685320
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 47 Mo

Extrait

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Contents

PLAN YOUR TRIP

Welcome to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s Top 10
Need to Know
What’s New
If You Like...
Month by Month
Itineraries
Outdoor Activities
Travel with Children

ON THE ROAD

GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS NATIONAL PARK
Day Hikes
Newfound Gap Road
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, Greenbrier & Around Cosby
Cades Cove
Cataloochee Valley
Additional Hikes
Overnight Hikes
Newfound Gap Road
Around Cosby
Fontana Dam & Western North Carolina
Sights & Activities
Courses
Sleeping
Eating
EAST TENNESSEE
Knoxville
Pigeon Forge
Gatlinburg
Chattanooga
Cherokee National Forest
NORTH CAROLINA MOUNTAINS
High Country
Blowing Rock
Boone
Asheville
Western North Carolina
Cherokee
Bryson City
Pisgah National Forest
Brevard
Nantahala National Forest
ATLANTA & NORTH GEORGIA
Atlanta
North Georgia
Athens
Dahlonega
Amicalola Falls State Park
Blue Ridge
Helen
Clayton
Tallulah Gorge State Park
Toccoa

UNDERSTAND

Understand Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Great Smoky Mountains National Park Today
History
Wildlife
Wildlife Spotter’s Guide
People of the Smoky Mountains
Forests of the Smoky Mountains

SURVIVE

Clothing & Equipment
What to Wear
What to Take
Directory A–Z
Accessible Travel
Accommodations
Electricity
Etiquette
Food
Internet Access
Legal Matters
LGBTIQ+ Travelers
Money
Opening Hours
Post
Public Holidays
Safe Travel
Telephone
Time
Toilets
Tourist Information
Travel with Pets
Visas
Transportation
Getting There & Away
Entering the Country
Air
Land
Getting Around
Bicycle
Boat
Bus & Shuttle
Car & Motorcycle
Local Transportation
Health & Safety
Before You Go
Health Insurance
In the Park
Medical Assistance
Common Ailments
Environmental Hazards
Safe Hiking
Behind the Scenes
Our Writers
Welcome to Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Get back to nature among mist-shrouded peaks, shimmering waterfalls and lush forests in the great American wilderness.

Forested Landscapes
The sun-dappled forests of the Great Smoky Mountains are a four-season wonderland. Rich blooms of springtime wildflowers come in all colors and sizes, while flame azaleas light up the high-elevation meadows in summer. Autumn brings its own fiery rewards with quilted hues of orange, burgundy and saffron blanketing the mountain slopes. In winter, snow-covered fields and ice-fringed cascades transform the Smokies into a serene, cold-weather retreat. This mesmerizing backdrop is also a World Heritage Site, harboring more biodiversity than any other national park in America.

Echoes of the Past
In small mountain communities around the Smokies, early settlers built log cabins, one-room schoolhouses, stream-fed gristmills and single-steeple churches amid the fertile forest valleys. The park has preserved many of these vestiges of the past, which make up one of the largest collections of log structures in the nation. You can glimpse the lives of these homesteaders while exploring photogenic open-air museums sprinkled across the park. You can walk bridges built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression and explore abandoned resort villages from the lumber days.

Mountain High
The Smokies are part of the vast Appalachian chain, among the oldest mountains on the planet. Formed more than 200 million years ago, these ancient peaks were once much higher – perhaps as high as the Himalayas – but have been worn down by the ages. You can contemplate that remote past while huffing up to the top of a 6000ft peak overlooking the seemingly endless expanses of undulating ridges. There are mesmerizing viewpoints across the park, as well as one mountaintop lodge that can only be reached by foot.

Reconnecting with Nature
The Smokies are a magical place to unplug from modern life and reconnect with nature – indeed you’ll be forced to, given the lack of mobile-phone service within the park. Days here are spent hiking past shimmering waterfalls and picnicking beside boulder-filled mountain streams, followed by evenings around the campfire as stars glimmer above the forest. Abundant plant and animal species create memorable opportunities for wildlife-watching, whether seeing elk grazing in Cataloochee, watching turkeys strut near Oconaluftee, or perhaps spying a bear in Cades Cove.

View from the Oconaluftee Valley Overlook | ANTHONY HEFLIN/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Why I Love Great Smoky Mountains National Park
By Regis St Louis, Writer
I have fond memories of coming to the park as a young boy and experiencing the wonderment of nature for the first time: thundering waterfalls, towering trees that reached high into the sky and fern-lined streams full of salamanders. Years later, after returning with my own children, I realized these biologically rich forests have lost none of their magic. The Smokies have so many different facets – from the hundreds of miles of hiking trails to the myriad cascades and breathtaking mountaintop views – it’s hard not to be filled with wonder after a trip here.
For more, see our writers
Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s Top 10

Clingmans Dome
No matter when you visit, the highest peak in the national park offers dazzling views. From the circular, flying-saucer-like viewing platform, you’ll have a sweeping 360-degree panorama of the undulating waves of forested peaks that stretch off into the distance. While it’s an easy but steep uphill walk along the paved half-mile path to the observation tower, there are many outstanding trails that cross through here – including the Appalachian Trail. And if you come in winter, when the access road is closed, you’ll have those grand views all to yourself.

Clingmans Dome observation tower | SEAN PAVONE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO ©

Top Experiences
Appalachian Trail
America’s most fabled walk in the woods stretches for nearly 2200 miles across 14 states. Some 71 miles of the challenging trail runs along the spine of the Smoky Mountains, taking you to soaring overlooks, through misty coniferous forests and past old-fashioned fire towers offering staggering views over the park’s verdant expanse. Even if you don’t have a week to spare (much less six months to hike the whole thing), you can still enjoy some marvelous day or overnight hikes along this legendary trail.

JCARILLET/GETTY IMAGES ©

Top Experiences
Mt LeConte
Mt LeConte is the third-highest peak in the Smokies, and can be seen from practically every viewpoint. Several trails including Alum Cave Bluffs and the Trillium Gap Trail to Grotto Falls wind their way up, passing rushing rivers, waterfalls, log bridges and precipitous views before reaching the summit at 6593ft. At the top, you can pay a visit to the rustic lodge that’s been in operation since before the creation of the national park in 1934. Book a cabin (well in advance) to make the most of this extraordinary Smoky Mountain experience.

LeConte Lodge | KELLYVANDELLEN/GETTY IMAGES ©

Top Experiences
Newfound Gap Road
The only paved route that bisects the park, the Newfound Gap Road offers fabulous mountain forest scenery as it curves its way for 33 miles between Cherokee, NC, and Gatlinburg, TN. While you could make the north–south traverse in an hour or two, it’s well worth taking it slow, stopping at scenic overlooks, having a picnic lunch beside a rushing mountain stream and going for a hike or two along one of the many memorable trails that intersect this iconic motorway.

NORMAN LATHROP/500PX ©

Top Experiences
Waterfalls
Abundant rainfall and steep elevation provide the perfect ingredients for one of the park’s great attractions: its picturesque waterfalls. Thundering cascades are dotted all around the Smoky Mountains, and some of the most popular hiking trails follow the creeks and mountain streams up to waterfalls, often surrounded by lush forest. To escape the crowds, head to waterfall trails in the far corners of the park. And if time is limited, focus on one of the cascades near Gatlinburg. Stunning 80ft-high Rainbow Falls lives up to its name, with rainbows visible in the mist on sunny days.

Rainbow Falls | KURDISTAN /SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Cades Cove
Surrounded by mountains, the lush valley of Cades Cove is one of the most popular destinations in the national park. The draw: great opportunities for wildlife-watching, access to some fantastic hiking trails, and remnants of buildings from the 19th and early 20th centuries. In fact, on an easy tour of the area, you can visit old churches, barns, log houses and a working gristmill, most of which date back to the first European settlement in the 1820s.

Cable Mill Historic Area | CAROLYN FRANKS/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail
Although it’s just 5.5 miles long, this scenic road holds a treasure chest of natural wonders. Named after the fast-flowing mountain stream that courses beside it, the Roaring Fork takes you to lookouts with panoramic views, past pockets of old-growth forest and right beside shimmering waterfalls. You’ll also see vestiges of human settlement in the area, including an old farmstead that sheds light on the area’s early inhabitants. Several excellent hiking trails start from this road, including to the lovely Grotto Falls.

EHRLIF/SHUTTERSTOCK ©

Top Experiences
Alum Cave Bluffs
Home to hundreds of miles of trails spread across 500,000 acres, the Smoky Mountains do not lack when it comes to hiking. The Alum Cave Bluffs trail, however, merits special attention for its outstanding scenery and sweeping views the higher up you go. You’ll also see wildflowers and old-growth forest, cross mountain streams on photogenic log bridges and perhaps get a glimpse of wildlife along the way. The multihued cliffs provide a mesmeri