Hiking in The Smoky Mountains

Hiking in the Smoky Mountains is beautiful. All the great parts of nature that you crave and want to get lost in are here. As I mentioned previously, August here is hot and muggy. For us, we were finished with all the hiking aspects by about 1pm. It was just too hot for us to be hiking after that. Maybe we just don't have a tolerance for the heat, which is true. But calling it a day by 1pm was fine with us. We'd spend the rest of the afternoon driving through the wonderful scenery, and stopping at whatever shops or neat things we saw along the drive.

A few tips - this place is BUSY in August. As in, if you don't get to the trail you want to hike by about 8am, you're not going to find a place to park. Because my partner and I are ridiculous early morning people, we tended to get to whatever trail we planned to hike by about 6am. At 6am there were plenty of parking spots available, but we were not the first car there. It also means hiking in the early morning is a bit cooler weather than later in the day. And the higher up you get on the mountains the cooler the weather is going to be. It's wonderful.

We made sure to carry some rain ponchos with us just in case the rain hit while hiking. We actually used them more than once. Part of the reason the mountains are called the smoky mountains is that every morning they are covered in mist. It's so stunning. That also means it rains every day - which is why it's so green and beautiful. Umbrellas, ponchos, mosquito repellant, sun block, and LOTS OF WATER are all good things to make sure you have on hand. In addition, I did have to use a jacket a few times. It was fabulous to need a jacket in August.

Another tip is that the trail head signs saying how far the hike is to the waterfall - it lies. We went to do the rainbow waterfall hike (I'm obsessed with waterfalls and streams and rivers so be prepared to see a lot of these). The trail head said the waterfall was 2.5 miles to it. According to my fitbit, it was 4 miles there. 4 miles of climbing up a mountain. When you live in a city that has no elevation or hills, you get a bit over zealous on your first hike in years into actual nature. So a 4 mile hike up a mountain, and then the 4 mile hike back down the mountain, reminded us that we aren't 21 anymore. We may have overdone it. Don't do that. Moving was really hard the next morning.

Totally worth it, but we could have planned a bit better. Also, by the time we starting hiking back to the car (around 9am) the crowds of people beginning the hike was rather crazy. So glad we got to enjoy the trail in the early morning without hoards of people around. 

Sigh. How I miss this place. It's so pretty. I could live here.