The Trails of Western North Carolina | home
Great Smoky Mountain National Park
View from Appalachian Trail just north of Mount Kephart
Photo taken April 23, 2001
The Great Smokies offer more than 800 miles of hiking trails. From heavily crowded tourist areas to remote quiet areas. Rugged knife edged ridges to splashing Falls and streams. Two beautiful valleys - the popular and often crowded Cades Cove on the Tennessee side of the park to the equally beautiful but almost unknown Cataloochee Valley on the North Carolina side.
The park has wildlife ranging from River Otter, Black Bear, Bobcats, Deer, Russian wild Boar and the newly re-introduced Elk in Cataloochee Valley. Three kinds of Trout can be found in the streams and more variety of plants grow in this Park than can be found in ALL of Europe. The Appalachian Trail follows the crest of the Smokies (basically following the NC-TN state line).
