Guides to Hiking in the Smokies: From Short Hikes to Backpacking

If you're looking forward to a hike in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park but would like some guidance, try the titles below — available from the University of Tennessee Press. There's something here for everyone, from backpackers to families hiking with young children.

Hiking Trails of the Great Smoky Mountains: A Comprehensive Guide, by Kenneth Wise. Includes facts on more than 125 trails. For every route, the author includes a set of driving directions to the trailhead, major points of interest, a schedule of distances to each one, a comprehensive outline of the trail’s course, specifics about where it begins and ends, references to the U.S. Geological Survey’s quadrangle maps, and, when available, historical anecdotes relating to the trail. 

Trial by Trail: Backpacking in the Smoky Mountains, by Johnny Molloy. In fourteen lively personal essays, the author describes the adventures by which he came of age as a backpacker. Interwoven throughout these pieces is a wealth of Smoky Mountains lore and history along with dozens of tips for novice backpackers. Whether describing the hazards of crossing a stream in winter or what to do — and not do — when one encounters a bear or a rattlesnake, Molloy writes with an infectious enthusiasm that will delight any lover of the outdoors.

Family Hiking in the Smokies: Time Well Spent, by Hal Hubbs, Charles Maynard, and David Morris. Want to know the best trails for hiking with children? Try this guidebook authored by three friends and longtime hiking buddies who began taking their own children on Smokies hikes long before the little ones could even toddle down the trails.

Just Outside the Park

UT Press’s most recently published hiking companion is an updated edition of the Cherokee National Forest Hiking Guide, edited by Will Skelton. The Cherokee National Forest includes much of the western slopes of the southern Appalachian Mountains, north and south of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This guidebook provides maps and specific directions for all the forest’s current trails along with a wealth of general information on its present and past wildlife, vegetation, and geology, as well as a history of the forest’s human inhabitants.