Abrams Falls

Tuesday, 17 April

OK, now that my wildlife encounter rant is out of the way, I return this blog to our regularly scheduled travel reporting!

The plan for the day was to visit the Great Smoky Mountains Heritage Center, a “nonprofit organization formed to preserve and present the heritage of the East Tennessee region.”  Located in Townsend, just down the road from the Tremont Outdoor Resort, it’s within walking distance, but we were carrying too much gear to get there under our own power.

Mui had just parked the car when we noticed that we had company — two bus-loads of school kids.  Oh!  Oh!  Noticing our concern, a staff member from the center told us that they had two busses a day coming in every week morning for the foreseeable future.  “They’ll be gone by 1:00p,” he continued.  OK; so we’ll come back later.  Well, we never made it back!  Instead, we drove into the park and hiked the Abrams Falls Trail, located not far from the Cable Mill Area of the Cades Cove Loop.

Our focus on this trip is the Cades Cove area; just a tiny portion of the GSMNP.
The inset shows where the Abrams Falls Trail is located in relation to the loop.
[maps courtesy of the National Park Service website.]

Designated as moderate, the in-out trail is 2½ miles (4 km) each way.

It was 11:15a when we set out from the trailhead.  Normally, we’re not ones to start hiking this late in the day, but the cool 60F (16C) temp and the long hours of daylight made it quite feasible.  Despite the ups and downs, and the rocks, boulders, and tree roots that made it imperative that we pay attention to where we were stepping, I’d rate the trail easy-to-moderate.  The trail climbs up to 1800 feet (~550 m) at one point, but you’re 200 feet (~ 61 m) below your starting point when you reach the falls.

With glimpses of Abrams Creek through the trees and wildflowers galore along the path, the trail has what we like to call ‘high entertainment value’.  We made so many stops to take pictures and enjoy creek-side snacks that it took us almost three hours to get to the falls.  We missed seeing rhododendrons and mountain laurel in bloom, but perhaps that wasn’t such a bad thing as we probably would have doubled our time going in otherwise!  (By comparison, the return hike took a little under two hours.)

Left: Pink Lady's Slipper Orchid — considered rare/endangered in Tennessee.
Right: Crested Dwarf Iris — very common; found growing on wooded hillsides.

The Red-Belted Conk is a ubiquitous shelf fungus that can grow to huge proportions.

Clockwise from the top left: Rhododendron (just blooming); Purple Trillium;
Spicebush; Mountain Laurel (budding); Meadow Beauty; Dog Hobble.
[please correct me if I am wrong on any of these.]

I didn’t mind the tree frog (looks like it’s about to pounce on its lunch).
I didn’t mind the five-lined skink (to the right of the snake in the top right photo).
but I sure could have done without seeing the common water snake.

There were three or four of these log bridges on the trail.
They were easy to cross actually; I’m just hamming it up for the camera :-)))

A boulder in the middle of Abrams Creek makes for a nice spot to have a snack.

Left: Now why can’t I just take a picture from the path like everyone else?
right: this cross vine was hanging down in the middle of the trail; I’m guessing that someone who walked up after us broke it off because it wasn’t there on the hike down — grrrr :-(((

At this uphill portion of the hike (left) we get a glimpse of Abrams Creek through the trees.

No, Mui; you don’t get to go for a dip at the falls.

Located as it is within the Cades Cove Loop, the Abrams Falls Trail is very popular, so we were very pleased (and lucky) that we didn’t encounter very many people while we were hiking.  The falls were similarly near-deserted.  The couple that was enjoying a snack left soon after we arrived; as did the young man who was taking a break from his 48-mile three-day hike.  More power to him.

We made ourselves comfortable on a couple of boulders at the edge of the water and had lunch in view of the falls on the far side.

Though only 20 feet (6 m) high, the volume of water rushing over makes the falls a sight to behold.

A Zebra Swallowtail Butterfly joins us for lunch.

After a while, we moved to the spit of rocks at the base of the falls.  We thought the spray from the rushing, tumbling water wouldn’t allow us to get too close.  But there was no spray whatsoever, so we stuck around to play a bit.  A few other visitors showed up, took photos and left; a family arrived just as we were leaving.

Any closer and we’d be taking a very cold shower.

I was surprised at how many people we saw going up while we were on our way down.  I sure wouldn’t want to be on this trail at dusk.  We made a few stops to take photos, but otherwise maintained a pretty even pace all the way back to the parking lot.

a ‘Silky water’ view from our snack break spot on the return leg of the hike.

Once off the trail, I wanted to stop at one of the heritage sites on the opposite side of the Cades Cove Loop.  So we took Hyatt Lane, one of only two roads with two-way traffic that cuts across the loop.  That detour led to a black bear sighting — this time a sow with her tiny COY (cub of the year).  This was followed by four other sightings; only one of which fit my definition of an encounter — we could see its beady black eyes.  Our total for the day: seven black bears, including the one that was the inspiration for my rant; and another bear we saw high up in a tree, looking down at a man that was standing at its base — I’ll resist the temptation for another rant.

See those eyes; if I can see them, the sighting is an encounter.

The return drive was particularly slow thanks to a couple of wildlife jams on the road ahead of us.  Nope, not for deer.  Nope, not for elk.  Nope, not for bear.  Rather, the traffic jams were all for wild turkeys :-)

Just as we exited the loop road, the rain that had been expected yesterday afternoon finally arrived.  The slow drizzle turned into quite a downpour, making for a slow drive home.  We were in no hurry, so we took our time driving the narrow, curvy roads.  Even as I finish writing this at 10:30p, the rain has not stopped once.  I love the sound of rain on the roof of the motorhome; it lulls me to sleep.  Speaking of which, it’s time to get under the cozy comforter.