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National Geographic : 1936 Aug
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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE That jagged part of the State line ridge called The Sawteeth resembles a bit of the Rockies in form, but, like all the Great Smoky Mountains, it is covered with the variegated green of trees and shrubs. Mount Le Conte still is a grandstand, but many other peaks are becoming more and more popular as new trails and highways are completed. The old Mount Le Conte trail is seldom used except by the hardy mountain climber who seeks to test his strength and lungs. Four graded trails, each four feet wide, now lead to the summit. Engineers saw to it that one of them passed the famous Rainbow Falls and numerous cascades of Le Conte Creek as the route, a few miles longer than the old trail, winds up the slopes. Climbers usually take two days for the round trip from Gatlinburg to the top of Mount Le Conte, spending the night at the summit in a tiny log village maintained under Park regulations by a concessionaire. HIGH HEELS ON HIGH CLIMBS The early riser on Le Conte may see the lifting of the clouds from sweeping, dew drenched valleys and the gorgeous sunrise whose grandeur observers have proclaimed far and wide. Horses negotiate the new trails, and I even saw two feminine hikers who had climbed to the summit in high heeled shoes. A single blister was their only casualty. Mountain climbing in midsummer is hot and strenuous sport, but in the Great Smokies the builders of the new trails have sought easy grades, and thick foliage pro vides cool shade. In some places the trails have been literally tunneled out of the thicket. On a hot, humid day my companion and I set out for the summit of Thunderhead, 5,530 feet high. When we alighted from our automobile where the trail began, old Sol dealt us relentless blows. But less than a hundred yards ahead we stepped into a verdure-framed path resembling a narrow gothic passageway in the crypt of an Old World cathedral. Only the hushed thud of our footsteps on the soft, moist ground, the trickle of numerous springs, the rustle of millions of leaves, and the songs of the mountain birds broke the silence of that forest aisle. We found the top of Thunderhead a "bald"-an area devoid of trees but sup- porting a healthy growth of knee-high grass. As we stood on the sun-swept summit, we saw three rainstorms pour their torrents into the mountains of Tennessee to the north, and one into those of North Caro lina to the south. Thunder roared all about us, but not a drop of rain fell on Thunderhead. To see the Great Smokies from Hein tooga Bald, in North Carolina, we motored along the bed of an abandoned logging railroad. Heintooga rivals Mount Le Conte in spectacular mountain views, for, as far as we could see, mountains soared and tumbled-mountains in haze, mountains in clouds. Panoramas of the Great Smoky heights are ever changing. On a trail one after noon I stopped to rest. Greenbrier Pin nacle, topped by a fire tower, loomed in the distance, shielded only by a slight haze. In ten minutes fleecy clouds had hid den its summit, and then lifted to leave the crest again clearly silhouetted against the sky. Spectacular is the view when peaks shade canyonlike valleys and shadows of tiny clouds chase one another on the sweeping slopes above the glens. One of the first known white men to study the wonders of the Great Smoky Mountains was a botanist, William Bar tram, of Philadelphia, who climbed among these heights about the time patriots in Independence Hall signed the Declaration of Independence. After him came other botanists who have found the mountains their paradise, one of the largest and last vestiges of the native forest that swathed the hills and valleys of colonial America. A CENSUS OF WILD FLOWERS So diversified are the wild flowers of the Great Smokies that visitors from many sections of the country find species that grow abundantly in their fields and wood lands among others that are rare to them. Twenty-two orchids find a natural habitat in these rugged and well-watered moun tains; there are 50 kinds of lilies; 7 of trilliums; 22 of violets, and 5 of magnolias. The native wild orchids, while not so large as the more familiar cultivated spe cies, have all the exquisite form and dainty coloring of their "civilized" cousins. Like many other plant families in the Smokies, the orchids are found throughout a long blossoming season. Certain species make a bold debut in the very early spring; 252
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