Product Description

This guide features 82 hikes within Great Smoky Mountains National Park. With over 800 miles of maintained trails within the park, author Kevin Adams guides hikers through the rugged landscape and dense vegetation of the Great Smokies so they can have an intimate experience and see everything they would want to see, right from an official trail. Clear and concise trail descriptions and brilliant photography will make this guide a requirement when heading into the backcountry of America's most visited national park.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #227479 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780762711109
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From the Back Cover
Lace up your boots and sample more than eighty hikes in the spectacular Great Smoky Mountains National Park that straddles the North Carolina - Tennessee border. Experience the densely forested trails of America's most visited national park, with its abundant wildlife, lush foliage, and hundreds of miles of cascading streams. Here you'll discover old-growth forests, waterfalls of all shapes and sizes, and a wide variety of mosses, lichens, ferns, and wildflowers. Local hiker and outdoor photographer Kevin Adams introduces you to this and more.
Inside you'll find: up-to-date trail information; detailed maps and elevation profiles; clear directions from major access points; difficulty and traffic ratings for each hike; zero-impact camping tips; vacation planning and a hiker's checklist.
Whether you are a day-tripper or long-distance hiker, old hand or novice, you'll find trails suited to every ability and interest throughout the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

About the Author
Kevin Adams has had a lifetime love affair with nature, particularly in his home state of North Carolina. He is author of North Carolina Waterfalls, Wildflowers of the Southern Appalachians, and Waterfalls of Virginia and West Virginia. Additionally, he is an accomplished photography instructor and teaches numerous workshops and seminars.

Customer Reviews

good for day hikes
It's a great, very detailed book if you're local and want to experience all the great day hikes. The author does a wonderful job dividing them into categories - from couch potato to training to be a navy seal! However, none of them are longer than 1 nighters - he says you can split some of them up into two nights... but if you're out there to backpack for multiple nights, you're probably not interested in 6 mile days, right? I would suggest buying a good map of the park to go with this, if you're interested in multiple night outings in the Smokies. That way, you can plan a longer route, but use the book to reference details on the trails you'll be on.

High Quality Guide
This guide is typical for Falcon - First Rate. It has good trail descriptions, a mix of historical information, and the handy guide to get you to the right trails quickly. The only thing I'd like to see is a page dedicated to small scale reference maps at the beginning of each section. The trail maps are fine, but too close in to see the relative placement of the trails. Besides that, and a few typos, this is everything most folks would need for the park. This book is a definite buy.

A Great Hiking Guide
My family and I just returned from our vacation in the Smoky Mts. This was one of the two guides we used during our stay and it was very helpful. As parents of two smaller children, ages 5 and 8, we needed a guide that included shorter day hikes and not just the overnight type. This guide did just that. Here's what I liked and didn't like about the book:

Things I liked: The way it broke down each hike with acurate descriptions of the trail, what you can expect to see while hiking it (the highlights), where to find the trail head, a topicgraphical-type picture showing where the hills are on the hike, personal information about the trail and its history as well as beautiful pictures. The trails are organized by location within the park so when you're at a particular part of the park, you can zero-in on those hikes in that area. There are also maps to show you where the trail meets up with other trails in the area.

Things I didn't like about the book: Though the maps are helpful for showing the specific location, I found myself having to check our park map to be able to pinpoint exactly where the trail was located. I wish the book would include a more "overview" park map as well. Also, since we were looking for trails which were around 6 miles round trip or less, the author had a habit of running two or more trails together to form one big hike. Many of these hikes were ten-plus miles long. He did this to form a loop rather then having to back-track, but it would have been nice if he could have given the shorter version as an option.

Overall, I would certainly recommend this book to anyone. For those seeking to take 8-10 mile hikes or some over night hikes, this book is ideal.

We also purchased at the park visitor center, two maps - Water Falls and Day Hikes ($1 each) - which were actually VERY helpful! The dayhikes were about 5 miles round trip or less with a very brief description. At the visitor center, we also purchased a book called Smokies Road Guide which gave some background information about each section of the park and has beautiful colored pictures. For those who like to plan ahead, the maps and book can be ordered off the internet at the park's website.