An outing on February 27th in Great Smoky Mountains National Park proved productive and enjoyable as I hiked Porter Creek Trail up to Fern Falls.

After the heavy rainfall earlier in the week, the streams were gushing, and Fern Falls had a nice flow.

The icing on the cake was to find wildflowers blooming.  There was a good selection of Hepatica and Star Chickweed in bloom, along with a few Spring Beauties and White Fringed Phacelia in bloom.  There were dozens of Hepatica buds, and with the warm weather predicted in the next few days, the blooms should be spectacular.  The blooms were about 2 miles up the trail after crossing the long, two-piece footlog bridge.

It was certainly delightful to find wildflowers in bloom again, and we can anticipate many more in the coming months.  Happy wildflowering!

For a real treat, those who love wildflowers would really enjoy Gregory Bald in mid-June.

Gregory Bald is famous for its Flame Azaleas, which usually bloom in mid-June. Most of the azaleas in the park are orange or yellow and bloom in the middle of April.  On Gregory Bald, the blooms displayed are white, pink, yellow, red, orange, lavender, and in between.  The shrubs grouped together can be the size of a full-sized pickup truck.  Some of the white and pink blooms have a fragrance that a person would remember for a long time.

The bald is located above Cades Cove at about 5000 feet above sea level.  On the Tennessee side, one can hike up Gregory Ridge trail, which starts at the end of Forge Creek Road and has an elevation gain of around 2660 feet.  The trail is 4.9 miles long one way, and at the end of this trail, to get to the bald, you need to turn right on the east end of the  Gregory Bald trail and go another .06 tenths of a mile (with some more elevation gain) to the bald.

A second trail to the bald on the Tennessee side is on the western end of the Gregory Bald trail which starts from Parsons  Branch Road (closed in the winter months), and it is four and a half miles one way to the bald on this trail with an elevation gain of around 2170 feet. The trail is a horse trail and can be very muddy after rainfall.  If this route is chosen, the hiker should have a four-wheel or All Wheel Drive vehicle with high clearance.  Parsons Branch Road is an eight-mile one-way road that runs between Forge Creek Road and US 129.  It is 3.2 miles out on the Parsons Branch Road to the Gregory Bald Trail.  I would classify this road as unimproved. It has “washboards”, erosion, ruts and passes through 18 creeks.  If a person passes over Parsons Branch Road they would come out on US 129 about four miles from the North Carolina line.  To return to East Tennessee, it is necessary to turn right onto US 129 and pass over the tail of the dragon, which has 318 curves in eleven miles.

There is a tremendous view of Cades Cove from Gregory Bald.   It is a treat on a clear day to sit in the grass on the bald, eat your lunch, and observe Cades Cove below.

The bald is one of the three balds (meadows in the sky) that are above Cades Cove where the farmers would drive their cattle to in the early Spring and leave them there until fall.  This was done so crops could be grown on the land in the cove (growing crops was considered more productive than grazing cattle there).

Most folks would probably agree with me that hiking to Gregory Bald gives a person a real workout; however, the reward is a true mountain-top experience to be cherished.  My thought is that being on Gregory Bald on a clear day when the azaleas are blooming gives me a little taste of what it will be in Heaven.

Tom Harrington is a regular hiker who reports on his hikes and mountain stories from the Smokies. See more of his column here.

Follow KnoxTNToday on Facebook and Instagram.  Get all KnoxTNToday articles in one place with our Free Newsletter.