The Highest Spot in the Park and Andrew’s Bald

Monday August 6, 2018                                                                Most Recent Posts:
Great Smoky Mountains National Park                                          Surprising Neighbors & a Favorite Hike
Tennessee                                                                                     Search for the Stone House Along a Raging River

Well I’ll get it over with up front.  It was a gorgeous day and a fabulous hike and I could have gotten wonderful pictures except somehow I managed to bring my camera but leave the memory card in my computer.  No card, no pictures.  When I left home, I’d had this nagging sense that I’d forgotten something and so I checked everything off  in the car before I pulled out.  Never even thought about the card.

Thus I had to use my Samsung Galaxy 5 which has an absolutely horrible camera.  This, by the way, is the #1 problem with staying so far from the trailheads.  I had no idea I didn’t have it until I went to take my first pictures of the clouds sitting below me between the mountains..   I am totally bummed about this but here goes with what I do have.   A mere shadow of what was around me.

Clingman’s Dome is on the highest point in the Great Smokies and is 7 miles up from the Newfound Gap Road that crosses the park from West, Tennessee to East, North Carolina.  From the parking lot I am looking down on the clouds settling around the mountain tops.

I am glad to see that the information signs are in both English and Cherokee.  These mountains are sacred to the Cherokee who were driven west to Oklahoma by Andrew Jackson’s Trail of Tears in the early 19th century.  It’s one of a number of unbelievable tales of attempted genocide in our own country at the behest of our government.

The clouds look like a white lake as they move among the mountains.

The trailhead for the Fortney Ridge Trail to Andrew’s Bald is just off the large road size walk up to the famous Clingman’s Dome spiral lookout.  More on that later.

The trail to the bald goes off to the right just before the traffic cone.  Notice that there is not one soul on the walk up to Clingman’s Dome.  This will be an important memory later.

And down some more.   And then even more.   I’m not used to thinking about climbing up at the end of a hike in the Smokies but I guess when you are already near the top of things the only way to go is down.  

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There were a number of wildflowers along the way that just kept going down

The trail continues with a descent down the southern side of Fortney’s Ridge aka Clingman’s Dome.  It goes through a Spruce Fir Forest typical of higher elevations in the Southern Appalachians.  This relic forest of the ice age is being wiped out by the Balsam Wooly Adelgid an insect responsible for all the dead trees visible in the formerly pristine views of the beautiful green mountains.  Here I can see the death up close.

Still, the trail is beautiful, mossy green as well as wet.  It has been recently reconstructed by the Trails Forever Crews.  The stone work is really wonderful and in most places keeps hikers out of what would be serious mud.

The trail bottoms out and begins to climb.  As we get nearer the bald, the mud picks up.  This is a must return and do again hike.  These phone pictures just do not do justic to the lush beauty and richness of the color of the trail.

It’s a bit of a surprise to come out of the woods and rhododendron and onto the bald.   The trail leads right to this outcropping.

I’m lucky to find fairly clear views here though not long distant ones because of the clouds.  Another reason to do this hike again.

For my visit the bald has wildflowers and butterflies but for those lucky enough to come in June, it is covered with Flame Azalea.  I can just imagine what a breath taking sight such orange would be.

The trail descriptions say there are stunning view of Fontana Lake and miles of the southern Smokies.  The view is beautiful today but I don’t see the lake or miles of mountains.

I follow the trail signs for the Forney Ridge Trail and head out following the trail until it begins to descend into the woods again.   I hadn’t planned to go further than Andrew’s Bald so I curb my curiosity and turn around.

I’ve pretty much had the bald to myself but when I return to start heading back to Clingman’s Dome, I conveniently find a couple who’d like me to take their picture here and they reciprocate.

As I’ve found before on trails after a heavy rain, things are muddier later in the morning than they were earlier.   I suspect this trench/trail is like walking in a stream in a heavy rain.

As I reach the bottom of the trail before starting my way up, I encounter a bear and am 100 times more disappointed that I don’t have my “real” camera.   S/he is great and pays me no mind at all as I try to get this camera with no noticable zoom to get some decent pictures.

I suspect at this point he’s thinking “all right already, enough is enough”.  But what I get is blurry.
It serves as a memory of having seen him on this trail on this day but that’s about all.

Time to start the climb out.  I again admire the work of the trail crew in creating this variety of steps.

Jewel Weed along the way doesn’t surprise me as I’ve seen and avoided the poison Ivy

Things are quite different than they were when I started out earlier.  As I near the top, I can hear them before I can see them.

I’ve dawdled on the trail as usual, stayed quite a while at the bald and watching the bear so it’s noon and the after 10:00ers have arrived to hike up to the top of Clingman’s Dome.  Compare this picture of the “road” to the one at the beginning of the blog showing it when I started out. 

Andrew’s Bald was really the goal of my day so I did it first but “next time” I may do the half mile trail first.  it turns out to be a steep grade and high altitude.  Luckily there are lots of resting benches for those who look like they really should not be attempting this.

We’re all headed for this space age looking viewing platform for 360 degree views of the mountains “maybe”.

There are nice views on the way up and fields of wild flowers along the trail sides.

The fog has made it to the top before I did.  but I’m here, so I walk on up to the dome.

Here’s the view behind me when I arrive.  It actually gets worse than that as in total white out.

Each direction has a labeled map so you can identify what you are seeing.  IF you are seeing.
Always a risk climbing for a view in the Appalachians.  The photograph clearly shows the sad fate of the Firs.    Information also tells me that in the last half of the 20th century the average distance it is possible to see decreased by 40% in winter and 80% in summer,a result of air pollution.

Having made the steep half mile climb, I hang around hoping the winds might blow some of this away.  Here are the varying views.

Different directions, different amounts of clarity.

Here’s a video and the sounds of Clingman’s Dome.  HA!

Seems the worst views were at the very top.

Fields of monarda along the trail.

I do a fast walk down to get away from all the noise.  Although it’s mostly at the top since the people climbing are panting and out of breath.  Still I’m very happy to get inside my quiet car and drive away.  All in all it was a very fine 7 mile day and I’d definitely do it again and even earlier if I could.