Rainbow Falls - First Impressions of the Great Smoky Mountains

Rainbow Falls

On Sunday (8/15/10) I took my first visit to the Great Smoky Mountains. I wanted to check it out, and get a little hiking in. (A goal of mine in grad school is to get out in nature at lot more than I did at CMU).

Initially I was really, really confused about the setup of the park.  Most national parks you have to pay to enter - this is the only one in which you don't.  It was also strange how the park was setup.  It seems to be oriented not for people who want to backpack in or hike large (more than two miles) distances.  I got the feeling that the Great Smoky Mountains was setup to be more of a one day park for tourists.

The most frustrating thing was finding a trail map.  It turns out you have to pay a dollar for the map, and the real map was hidden in with a bunch of pansy maps.  At first I was upset that I had to pay for a map that was free at all other parks (it was like having to pay for water) but once I thought about it more it didn't seem like such a bad idea.  Prevents people from taking more than they need, and since the setup was more one day tourist, why not charge for maps if you are not charging admittance?

Not for Eating

To some degree I think that the nature in the park was whored out - a lot of the people at the falls just seemed to want to take there picture underneath the water.  Hell, there were small theme parks on the road leading into the park, and on the park brochure it said that most people only see the park by driving through it. 

I understand that some people do not enjoy being outside as much as I do, but I wonder what appreciation they gain for nature by driving through.  I think that in order to gain an appreciation for nature you have to interact with it.  I don't think that this is accomplished by driving through a park, or by building trail heads so close to the attraction that the hike to the attraction is minimized.  I plan to return to the Great Smoky Mountains, and hopefully do some backpacking.  With more time there I hope to understand this more.

The hike I did was 12 miles, which I did in about 4.5 hours.  It was a lot of fun, though I should have brought more water.  A lot of neat scenery and and views, along with some cool bugs.  By accident I stepped on a bug like the one on the left, and it made the neatest squeak of a popping sound.  I also found some wild blackberries to eat along the trail, which at the time made me feel immensely clever. 

I really like trails that follow streams - I like watching how water falls through the rocks.