HikerRandy - Appalachian Trail Journal - 2007

View: 1  2 
(Click image for full size)


View from the Dome

Clingman's Dome to Newfound Gap

Was in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park with my wife Jan.... It was a beautiful day, with temps in Gatlinburg in the 70 degree range. However, it was MUCH different at the top of Clingman's Dome.

We parked the car in the parking lot, and I threw on my pack. We hiked up to the summit of the Dome (6,643') and took some pictures. At the summit, it was about 43 degrees, and the wind was blowing at 25mph. Needless to say, we didn't stay up there very long. We began our trek down to Newfound Gap. The visibility on this day was better than I had ever seen it.... I thanked the good Lord for the visibility...

As we moved thru the forest down towards the Gap, I began to warm up due to the exercise... When we left the Dome, I had on a fleece jacket underneath a light windbreaker... At about mile 4, I decided it was much too warm for the fleece. Jan and I stopped, drank some water, and removed the fleece jacket.

As we descended down from 6,643' to the Gap at 5,045', we noticed that more people coming from Newfound Gap began to slow down.... it's a steady 200'/mile climb up, and some of the people had heavy (50#) packs...

Came down to the Gap after about a 3 hour jaunt, and took some more pictures of the view... Again, the good Lord showed us favor with the view and visibility.

Now we had to hike back up to the Dome, since that is where our transportation back to Gatlinburg was located. This time, it took us about 3.5 hours to go back up, but it was a wonderful time.

Entry 1 of 1
First :: Previous :: Next :: Last