Getting to the top of Clingman's is easy--you drive to within half a mile of the top, then follow a paved walkway to an observation tower. LeConte is a bit more demanding. You follow a five mile trail to the top that alternates protracted, steep climbs, scrambles over broken rock, and slogs through (or, if you can manage, around) mudholes created by seeps and springs in the mountainside. There are, blessedly, some level stretches, but most of them end around the time you start to relax into them. In the dicier spots, the Park Service offers special assistance:
The views along the way proved worth the effort. As we approached the top, we found ourselves at nearly eye level with the clouds:
Like many Smokies summits, Leconte is covered with trees and doesn't permit views. Fortunately, there are some open cliffs just below the peak. Here's a view into the distance from them:
Our destination the next day was Ramseys Cascades, the park's largest waterfall. This was snapped on the rock in the river just downstream where Kristine and I ate lunch.
The trail there was only four miles, but it lead constantly upward, and didn't always offer obvious or comfortable footholds. On our way back, we passed a number of inadequately shod people asking us, through gasps, how much further ahead the falls were.
On our way out of the park the next day, we exchanged the sublime for the pastoral with an excursion to Andrews Bald, one of the meadows that crown some of Smokies peaks.
From there we headed down from the mountains and made our way to Spartanburg through a series of thunderstorms. These would hang around during most of conference, making it fortunate that our vacation was moving, mostly, indoors.
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