Photos: Hike to Alum Cave in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Alum Cave in the Smoky Mountains.
Alum Cave in the Smokies. 

This is the most popular trail of the national park. It gets busy. At 9:30 a.m. there was not parking space in the trailhead. The truck ended on a side of the road at a 15% slope according to the inclinometer. Some stuff felt out when I opened the rear door. Gravity.  

The Alum Cave Trail reaches the summit of Mt. LeConte, the third highest summit in the park. There is a lodge up there, an exclusive place for hikers because there is not road. Walk, baby walk! Our plan is to hike only to Alum Cave. 

Creek in the Alum Cave trail - Photo: Still Gravity.
Beautiful creeks up there. 

On the way, we went through the celebrated Arch Rock. It's said that a flash flood created this beauty in the 1990s. The water moved the gigantic boulder, and we got an iconic place. 

Bridge through the Arch Rock - Photo: Still Gravity.
Arch Rock in the Alum Cave trail. 

A little after, metal wires on the walls help to secure the steps and we got the views of Inspiration Point. Now we are tall over the mountains.  

The Smoky Mountains seen from the trail - Photo: Still Gravity.
The Smokies in all their splendor. 

Our photos don't make justice to the beauty of these rocky cliffs. Disappointing. You must go and see. 

The trail narrowed again and the metal wires anchored on the rocks returned. 

C in a narrow part of the trail - Photo: Still Gravity.
C going up - some parts get narrow, but not too bad. 

Water dripping down on the rocks. The sunlight shining on the tiny drops. There we met some Spanish girls visiting America. They were having a blast.  

Ten minutes more and... Alum Cave.

Approach to Alum Cave - Photo: Still Gravity.
The approach to Alum Cave. 

Technically, Alum Cave is just a high bluff with alum deposits painting the walls, 

Resting in Alum Cave - Photo: Still Gravity.
Taking a long break under the cover of the rocks. Fresh place. 

Seated there, we couldn't move our eyes from the magnificent views. Green, yellows, and oranges intermixing in a cacophony of forms and colors. The mighty autumn palette.

This point was the end of our hike. Two miles more and we would reach Mt. LeConte. Spending a night at the lodge would be cool - and also cold -, but reservations are needed to overnight there. Something for another time. We are not done with the Smokies.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chekika: Forgotten spot of Everglades National Park close to Miami

Image
During our last visit to Chekika ( map ), we found closed roads and dilapidated buildings. This was our fourth time here. Little by little, nature is coming back. Wilderness taking over what was always its property.            The closed entrance to the Grossman Hammock -  License our images here .   Everglades National Park closed indefinitely the Chekika Day Use Area in 2013. They claimed budget constraints. One year later, Chekika was on the news when a juvenile Nile crocodile was removed from the area - the animal was captured in a canal north from the Grossman Hammock. Two others were caught in 2009 and 2012 further to the east. You know the script with invasive species: they escaped, or someone released them.  The Everglades already have the mighty Pythons running wild. I don’t want to imagine the River of Grass ruled by “man-eaters” crocodiles that can reach up to 17 feet. That would be madness. 
More »

Google search and the little blog

Image
Many small websites are going dark like the sands of the desert at nightfall -  License our images here .   Little blogs are dying. They are jailed in a dark and remote dungeon of Google organic search, the non-index dungeon. The mighty gatekeeper, like Saturn , is devouring its children. Betrayed for money, the good old-fashioned blogs are the collateral damage of their "helpful" content update. Long gone is that 2004 when Loren Baker wrote: Google likes Blogs. Blogs do well in Search Results Listings on Google. This is because Blogs contain fresh content and are richly interlinked, despite their relatively small audiences. Some would go so far as to say that Google over-represents Blogs. (Source:  What if Google didn't like blogs? ") That's ancient history. A jump to 2022 shows a different picture. According to Sandy Maguire: The Internet is dominated by a few big websites. Out of social, the amateur opinion is vanished. (Source: " Why Is the Web So Monoto
More »

Ernest Hemingway's "Oklahoma": "All of the Indians are dead (a good Indian is a dead Indian)"

Image
Page of an edition of "Three Stories & Ten Poems" from Ernest Hemingway.  Here we go with Hemingway poetry. Harsh. But we know what to expect from his sharp journalistic prose and  iceberg theory .  "Oklahoma" was published in 1923 in Three Stories & Ten Poems   - affiliate link to Amazon . The name says it all: the "Oklahoma" of the Choctaw language - means "red people" -, and Oklahoma the state seen through its genesis, the Indian Territory .  American Indians or Native American - whatever suits you, but many of them prefer the first name - in their new way of life.   Now to the poem.  All of the Indians are dead (a good Indian is a dead Indian) Or riding in motor cars— (the oil lands, you know, they’re all rich) Smoke smarts my eyes, Cottonwood twigs and buffalo dung Smoke grey in the teepee— (or is it myopic trachoma) The prairies are long, The moon rises, Ponies Drag at their pickets. The grass has gone brown in the summer— (or is it
More »