Hiking in the Smokey Mountains - HikingintheSmokys.com

Welcome to HikingintheSmokys.com

Welcome to HikingintheSmokys.com, the most comprehensive site on the web for information on hiking in the Smokey Mountains.

Whether you're looking for hiking information on a particular Smokey Mountains trail, or trying to find a hike that fits your own personal preferences, or, maybe you're just looking for some hiking ideas for your next visit to the Smokeys, this site is for you.

HikingintheSmokys.com provides detailed information on more than 70 Smokey Mountains trails throughout Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This site gives you access to pictures, key trail features, trail length, difficulty ratings, trail maps, elevation profiles, and now, video (for an example, go to the Mt. LeConte Page).

Explanation of Hike Difficulty Rating

You will read and hear a lot about the difficulty of any given hiking trail in the Smokey Mountains. I have found these ratings to be too general and highly subjective. While researching trails for a trip to Rocky Mountain N.P. a couple of years ago, I found a web site that attempts to remove the subjectivism out of trail difficulty ratings by using a mathematical formula.

I discovered this formula while visiting hikingincolorado.org and immediately saw the benefits of using this calculator. The equation was developed by Dick Holley and comes from the book Rocky Mountain National Park Dayhiker’s Guide by Jerome Malitz.

This formula has allowed me to roughly gauge the difficulty of a trail by comparing difficulty ratings to trails I've already hiked. The formula is as follows:

( 0.002 x elevation gain [in feet] ) + round trip distance [in miles]

Essentially, the formula adds a score of 1 for each 500 feet of elevation gain, plus, a score of 1 for each mile walked.

Of course these ratings are only an indicator of hike difficulty - every hike has its variables beyond elevation gain and distance including weather, experience/fitness, unique trail conditions, start/end elevation, etc. This rating system simply gives the hiker a reference point between one trail and another.

As a general rule of thumb, a difficulty rating of less than 5 is considered to be an easy hike. Between 5 and 10 is moderate and anything over 10 is considered to be strenuous.

Explanation of Variances in Mileage and Elevation

You may notice some minor variances between the mileage and elevations reported on this web site versus official maps, books and other sources of trail information for the Smokey Mountains.

I stand by the mileage figures reported on this web site. I am using the Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx GPS unit for all of my mileage and elevation figures on this web site. I have tested the Garmin against known distances and have found it to be nearly exact, if not exact, in its measurements. Furthermore, I spoke with a backcountry park ranger in Glacier N.P. a couple of years ago and he scoffed at the "officially" reported mileage figures for trails in that park. He claimed that he wouldn't trust any of those figures because of the way they were calculated.

Elevation figures, on the other hand, may be a little off. I've found that the Garmin can fluctuate by as much 20 or 30 feet for the same location from one measurement to another. The reason for this is because the Garmin uses barometric pressure to calculate elevation. That measurement will fluctuate when there's movement in barometric pressure such as when a front or a storm passes through the area.

Having said all that, though, I will be using elevation measurements from the Garmin GPS for all trails moving forward. Despite these small fluctuations, these measurements should be reasonably accurate.

One additional thing I should point out with regards to elevation. There will be some instances where total elevation gain is greater than the difference between start and ending elevation. The reason for this is because some of the trails are up and down. To give an accurate reflection of the difficulty of the trail, I add the elevation gains for each ascent of a trail, instead of just measuring the difference between the lowest and highest points.