I was fortunate enough to join my family this year for the holidays in Tennessee. Destination: the Great Smoky Mountains !
We stayed in a beautiful cabin near the national park entrance. Of course, that meant some hiking would be involved.
The Great Smoky Mountains are a mountain range bordering the Tennessee-North Carolina border. They are part of the Blue Ridge mountains which is a subrange of the Appalachian mountains.
The mountains are sometimes called the “Smokies” and are best known as the home of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park . The park was first established in 1934. The park covers 522,427 acres, which is divided between Tennessee and North Carolina. The park has over 800 miles of hiking trails.
I got to hike three of them while I was visiting this beautiful place.
Some of the trails were closed, but there were still plenty to choose from. With a quick stop at the visitors center, we collected maps and drove to the trailhead for a first hike. The “Little River” trail follows an old logging road that was used by the Little River Logging company back in the early 1900s. The trail follows along Little River.