SPRING WILDFLOWERS AND WALKER SISTERS’ HOMESITE
DAY HIKE
The wildflowers of spring were a sign that winter had passed and life would be easier for the Walker sisters. Join your experienced naturalist guides for an easy three-mile hike and learn about emerging flowers, plus trees, and the lives of these legendary pioneers. Two connecting trails will lead us from Metcalf Bottoms to the historic Little Greenbrier Schoolhouse and on to the famed Walker sisters’ homesite where the “Five Sisters” lived off the land. This is a great opportunity for a family nature outing or time to spend with a friend to learn from the experts. Instructors: Joel and Kathy Zachry, both M.S., are husband and wife naturalists with more than 50 combined years of backcountry identification and hiking experience. They have led Field School sessions since the early 1980s.
This course is no longer available. Please select another course.
Fee: $49
Sat., April 11, 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
(Meet at right hand parking lot just inside Metcalf Bottoms Picnic area.)
THE PERFECT HIKE
If you enjoy seeing waterfalls, vistas, old farms and home sites, unique geologic features, and spring wildflowers (we counted more than two dozen on this trip last April), then this is your kind of hike! It is relatively easy—about five miles roundtrip, and not too steep. About 90 percent of the hike is on old trails, with the rest through open woods to a great overlook. As far as physical exertion is concerned, if you can make the round trip to Alum Cave Bluff and back from the Newfound Gap Road, you should be just fine with this hike. If the weather cooperates, this feature-packed trip truly will be “The Perfect Hike.” Instructor: Ron Click is retired from the National Park Service and GSMNP, where he worked for 33 years as a ranger, interpreter, maintenance employee, and volunteer.
This course is no longer available. Please select another course.
Fee: $49
Sat., April 18, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
(Meet on porch at Park Headquarters Bldg.)
OLD GROWTH FOREST: ALBRIGHT GROVE
Albright Grove has perhaps the greatest variety of old growth cove hardwood trees found anywhere in the Great Smokies that are in a small area accessible by trail. We’ll begin the 6.5-mile roundtrip easy hike on the Maddron Bald Trail that winds by former corn fields, the historic Baxter cabin, and other signs of settlement before reaching an old growth forest. A footpath then leads beneath giant hemlocks, by spring wildflowers, across surging Indian Camp Creek, to the Albright Grove loop trail—named for Horace Albright. As we walk the quiet loop, dwarfed by giant Tuliptrees, Silverbells, Fraser Magnolias, Maples, Hemlocks, and others, we may choose to whisper in this seemingly outdoor cathedral. We’ll learn to identify trees by sight, touch, smell, and taste—with or without leaves. We’ll measure girth, and discuss the signs and adaptations of an old growth forest. And we’ll discover salamanders, birds, and other critters and how they fit in. Instructor: Carey Jones is a former Park Ranger naturalist who led educational walks for 14 years in the Smokies. Always the seeker and discoverer, his experience and M.A. help glean truths from nature to share with fellow learners. He is a naturalist for several organizations, including the annual Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage in the Park, and is the narrator of the new Bird Songs of the Smokies CD set.
This course is no longer available. Please select another course.
Fee: $49
Sat., May 2, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
(Meet in parking area at the Greenbrier entrance to the Park.)
A SMOKY MOUNTAIN DAY HIKE
Take a walk in the woods that will highlight many of the delightful aspects of these diverse mountains. The natural beauty and interesting history of the area will fill our day. In a moderate, seven-mile hike, we will have views, see big trees, encounter bear signs, rock-hop a stream, witness old homesteads, and meander through quiet coves. There is some uphill climbing at first but most of this hike is gentle and easy with views and a variety of plants that make the effort all worth it. We will take our time and talk about whatever catches our attention as this beautiful area comes alive for us. Instructor: Wanda DeWaard, M.S., recreation and environmental education, is an outdoor educator who has shared Earth Kinship and Environmental Awareness programs with community groups, schools, colleges, camps, nature centers, and teacher conferences since 1974. Anything and everything in the natural world brings out her enthusiasm and contagious sense of fun.
This course is no longer available. Please select another course.
Fee: $49
Sun., Sept. 20, 8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
(Meet at Finley Cane/Lead Cove Trail head on Laurel Creek Road, 5.5 miles west from the Townsend “Y” on the way to Cades Cove. If you get to the Cades Cove entrance, you need to backtrack about 3.5 miles to the trailhead.)
A DAY WITH A NATURALIST
Spend a day with an experienced field naturalist exploring the natural heritage of the Great Smokies. While visiting an ancient site associated with the last Ice Age, you’ll learn about the geologic origins of the Appalachians and the Smokies’ exact place in the Blue Ridge Province of the Southern Appalachians. You’ll visit various habitats like cove and northern hardwood forests, identifying distinctive birds, trees, wildflowers, and ferns associated with each. In the high spruce-fir forests along the Tennessee-Georgia state line, you’ll examine a unique habitat currently being subjected to atmospheric pollution and an adelgid that infests Fraser fir. Discuss Park Service attempts to contain these and other threats like the European wild boar and various “exotic” plants. The day will conclude with a walk (three miles round trip) along the moderate Kephart Prong Trail, where human and natural history are intertwined. Throughout the day you’ll learn nontechnical methods for bird and plant identification. After participating in this workshop, you’ll view the natural world of the Smokies with new eyes. Instructor: George Ellison is a writer-naturalist who resides in Bryson City, N.C. He serves as a fieldtrip leader for the annual Native Plants Conference, sponsored by Western Carolina University, and teaches plant and bird identification workshops for the North Carolina Arboretum.
This course is no longer available. Please select another course.
Fee: $49
Sat., Sept. 26, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
(Meet in training room at Sugarlands Visitor Center.)
DAY HIKE TO MT. LeCONTE
Spend the day with a naturalist and former Park Ranger exploring the plants, animals, and history along one of the most beautiful and significant trails in the Smokies. We’ll start in the Hemlocks, and wind through Northern Hardwood, Heath Bald, and Spruce-Fir forests to see majestic views on the third highest peak in the Park. We’ll follow a cascading creek, climb through a huge rock, smell the remnants of Civil War mining at Alum Cave Bluff, and learn why this trail led to the Smokies becoming a National Park. After resting at historic LeConte Lodge, we’ll stroll up to the Cliff Tops’ fantastic view. Perhaps most memorable on this 10-mile round trip hike will be the discovery and identification of the trees, flowers, birds, salamanders, and other wildlife that make the Smokies the biological capital of temperate America. Instructor: Carey Jones is a former Park Ranger naturalist who led educational walks for 14 years in the Smokies. Always the seeker and discoverer, his experience and M.A. help glean truths from nature to share with fellow learners. He is a naturalist for several organizations, including the annual Spring Wildflower Pilgrimage in the Park, and is the narrator of the new Bird Songs of the Smokies CD set. Note: Participants need to be prepared to hike this 10-mile roundtrip strenuous hike.
This course is no longer available. Please select another course.
Fee: $49
Sat., June 13, 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
(Meet at the Alum Cave Bluff Trail parking lot on
Newfound Gap Road.)
Register now: COURSE #09FA918
Fee: $49
Sat., Oct. 17, 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
(Meet at Alum Cave Bluff Trail parking lot on
Newfound Gap Road.)
CATALOOCHEE GHOST TOWN HIKE
Spend a late spring day exploring the former Little Cataloochee settlement region where little has changed since the late 1800s. This is an easy-to-moderate 5.4-mile roundtrip hike along the old community roadway where your experienced naturalist guides will share their knowledge of history and the natural features that were cherished by early settlers. The journey passes by historic structures including the 1864 John Hannah cabin with its chimney of handmade brick and 29-inch puncheon floorboards. See the 1889 Little Cataloochee Church and peruse the nearby cemetery tombstones of many a child and youth. As you walk, be on lookout for occasional hog wallows, bear and coyote scat, and abundant plant life to add to the discovery. Weather and time permitting, we’ll turn around to complete our trip at the Dan Cook cabin with stone walls still standing from the old apple house. Instructors: Joel and Kathy Zachry, both M.S., are husband and wife naturalists with more than 50 combined years of backcountry identification and hiking experience. They have led Field School sessions since the early 1980s.
This course is no longer available. Please select another course.
Fee: $49
Sat., May 2, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
(Meet at Little Cataloochee Trailhead off old NC Highway 284, Mt. Sterling Road.)
This apple denotes Knox County Teacher Center approval for in-service credit.
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