Smokies Hike Planning

• Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park website
• Temporary Road and Facilities Closures for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an essential link to check when planning trips to the Smokies.
• Backcountry campsite & shelter reservations  8 am - 6 pm EDT, 7 days/week   Info also available on this line:  865-436-1231
• Backcountry info (volunteer staffing):  865-436-1297
• Little Brown Book (Hiking Trails of The Smokies)
• Trail Maps for Smokies (free and downloadable)
• Smokies Trail Map (Nat'l Geographic #229)
• Online Topographic Maps (TopoZone.com)
• History Hikes of the Smokies
• Hiking Forum (hosted by Smoky Mtn Association)
• Leave No Trace - Seven Principles of Leave No Trace Outdoor Adventure
• Fontana Village Marina - Hikers may arrange for boat shuttle to/from Smokies trails along Fontana Lake park boundary (Eagle Creek, Hazel Creek, Forney Creek and Lakeshore trail campsites in between).  800-849-2258, ask for the Marina.  Alternate:  828-498-2211.

Field Guides and Interpretive Books

• Al's Favorite Wildflower ID Book: Wildflowers Of Tennessee, The Ohio Valley and the Southern Appalachians
• Best Orchids Book:  Native Orchids of the Southern Appalachian Mountains
• Other Flora & Fauna ID Books (check both web pages)
• Place Names of the Smokies (meaning and origin)
• Audubon's Field Guide to Mushrooms

Birding

• Al's Favorite Bird ID Book: The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America
• Birding Sites in East Tennessee (free website)

Borrow the book from a local library (we do this more often than you might imagine)

• Knox Library (Knoxville, TN area)
• Blount Library (Blount County, TN)
• Oak Ridge Library (Oak Ridge, TN)
• Sevier County Library (Sevier County, TN)
• Fontana Regional Library (branches in Bryson City, Sylva, Cashiers, Nantahala, Franklin and Highlands, NC)
• Asheville-Buncombe Library (Asheville, NC)

There is no better way to know if you'll like a book enough to want to purchase it than to borrow and use it for a few weeks.  Sometimes a week or so is all you'll need the book anyway.  Almost all of our libraries have online catalogs you can search from home or the office. 

• New! Great Hikes in Tennessee State Parks - There are nearly 1,000 miles of hiking trails in Tennessee State Parks and hikes along some of the best are featured in an ongoing series authored by Fran Wallas.  Published 6 times a year, the Tennessee Conservationist magazine has featured a new hike in each issue for at least the last 19 issues (since Nov/Dec 2005).  This link takes you to the page where you can read any of the hiking articles written by Fran Wallas.  It is a great place to get ideas about someplace new to hike in Tennessee for any season of the year.
• TrailJournals.com - This site focuses on journals from "long trails" such as the AT, Pacific Crest, Mountains-to-Sea, etc.  It takes awhile to learn to navigate this site but once you do it is possible to spend hours reading various hiking journals.
• Chattanooga Hiking Club - Lots of good hiking stories here about "local" hiking trips.  They have so much stuff they need a search engine or sorted listing.
• Smoky Mountains Hiking Club - A few good stories here in their "Trail Stories" section.
• TwoHikers.org - Good stories, good links and a wilderness-loving ethos.
• 1001 Hikes to Mt LeConte and Counting - Everything you could possibly want to know about hiking to Mt. LeConte from someone who has done it more than 1,300 times!  There are also lots of hike journals here from other contributors - and not just about Mt. LeConte.   Very interesting.
• Have a favorite you think I should include here?  Let me know.

Travel Guides

Tennessee Guy (website by the author of the Moon Handbook on Tennessee--excellent source of info!)