Potential Rain Didn’t Stop Me!

I started my hike early in the morning and considered turning around because 1. I forgot my parking pass and 2. The weather was cloudy. I came all the way from across the country and didn’t want to give up that easily. I ended up parking about a mile from the trailhead and decided to give it a go.  The beginning of the hike was cloudy, but not rainy. There’s beautiful scenery along the trail with water cascading down rocks and several caves people used as a rest stop. About 3 hours in I reached Myrtle Point, which is one of the lookout points, but unfortunately it was cloudy. I paced around the top, visiting the gift shop area, going to the bathroom, then deciding to hike to an alternate viewpoint called “cliff tops.” I was glad I did because by then the sun came out. The beauty truly lived up to its name as the “Smoky Mountains.” Cloud-covered green mountains were so majestic.  I was so happy that by the time I got to my car, I forgot about my missing parking pass~

All-in-all, he hike wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t too steep, and up to the very top is 5 miles and about 3,000 feet in elevation. One thing to mention was some of the rocks were wet and slippery. But besides that you can complete it easily in about 6 hours at a reasonable pace.