The Ozark Highlands Trail is a 254-mile point-to-point backpacking route in Arkansas. It is a blazed trail through the northern part of the state with multiple stream crossings. A full thru-hike is considered to be 165 miles, with 254 miles being the full proposed (and possible) route.

Region: Middle South (Arkansas)
Length: 165 – 254 miles (10-18 days)

Physical Difficulty: Moderate

• Creek and river crossings ebb and flow with the weather
• The trail is moderately graded
• The climbs and descents are short

Logistical Difficulty: Moderate

• No permits needed
• Both termini are hard to access
• Resupplies can be tough

Season: Fall, Winter, Spring

Hiking the Ozark Highlands Trail

The Ozark Highlands Trail is a route through northern Arkansas that follows the spine of the Ozark Mountains from east to west.

The trail is white-blazed along most of its route and is fairly straightforward to follow. There is also a FarOut guide. Compared with the Ouachita Trail, there are not as many signs or markers, but for the first chunk, every mile is signed.

The trees are deciduous with small groups of pine and the weather is temperate and mild. On my thru-hike I saw deer, elk, and porcupine. Locals also spoke of small black bears in the Ozarks. It is a peaceful environment that is far removed from any towns. This also makes the resupply strategy more difficult than comparable trails.

One big factor on the Ozark Highlands Trail is the water. There are numerous crossings every day, an abundance of waterfalls, and little need to have more than a 2-liter capacity. I thru-hiked this trail in February, which is one of the wetter times of the year, but water seems to flow year-round based on many of the online comments and water sources on maps.

The Ozark Highlands Trail is not finished, and there are two distinct sections with the opportunity to connect them as I did. The first 165 miles to the Buffalo River at Woolum are largely considered an entire thru-hike, but there is a decent section for 40 more miles to Dillards Ferry at Highway 14 that I was able to easily complete. From there, it was a 20-mile slog of bushwhacking, looking for a trail, and following gravel roads to get to the Sylamore section of the trail. The east end of the trail was beautiful and my 254-mile route ended at Matney Knob Trailhead.

How to Get to the Ozark Highlands Trail

Western Terminus: Fort Smith State Park, Arkansas
Closest City: Fort Smith (1 hour)

Eastern Terminus: Matney Knob Trailhead, Arkansas, or Woolum Campground, Arkansas
Closest City: Mountain Home, Arkansas (20 minutes)

I hiked this trail eastbound and was able to get a ride to the trailhead from a friend, but there is a very active Facebook group and numerous resources for getting to the trail on the Ozark Highlands Trail Association website.

Ozark Highlands Trail Western Terminus

From Fort Smith, Arkansas, it’s a 40-minute drive to Lake Fort Smith State Park

Ozark Highlands Trail Eastern Terminus

The trail ends abruptly at either Woolum or Matney Knob Trailhead (depending on where you conclude your thru-hike). Mountain Home is the largest city of any kind, but transportation can be tricky. I was able to hitch across the state to Fayetteville but there are also some bus options and the opportunity to rent a car to get to a major city. I found hitching to be fairly simple in Arkansas.

When to Hike the Ozark Highlands Trail / Which Direction

The Ozark Highlands Trail fits snuggly into the shoulder seasons when the weather is tamer in Arkansas and without the sticky heat and humidity that the region experiences during the summer. A generally equal split hike the trail in the early spring and the fall, with the season lasting a few months twice a year.

The trail can be hiked year-round, but a number of factors ranging from bugs to floods to cold weather make the February to April and October to November timeframes the most popular. In late February it snowed on me and the rivers were swollen after a rainstorm. The weather can be inclement, and despite the lack of true elevation the terrain can be rugged.

Most thru-hikers start at Lake Fort Smith State Park and travel eastbound because it is fairly easy to get a ride to and makes the logistics work a little better. The two possible termini on the east side are both remote and difficult.

Ozark Highlands Trail Terrain

The Ozark Highlands Trail is very much under the canopy of deciduous trees, but there are a number of views as the oscillating elevation brings you up and down numerous mountains. The trail is rocky with mud, waterfalls, and numerous stream crossings. Compared with the drier Ouachita Trail to the south, the Ozark Highlands Trail has a lot more dependable water.

Ozark Highlands Trail Resupply

Resupply can be complicated on the OHT. There are no major towns nearby, and the roads cutting through the mountains are lightly traveled. But with a couple of longer carries the trail can be thru-hiked without going hungry.

Resupply 1, Ozone, Arkansas
Mile 68

A tiny Burger Barn that accepts thru-hiker packages is only 2 miles off the trail. The other option at this crossing of Highway 21 is Clarksville. If you can manage the long carry from here to Woolum, the simplest way to thru-hike the Ozark Highlands Trail is to only resupply at this location.

Resupply 2, Highway 65
Mile 205

If you are hiking the full (proposed) length of the trail, Highway 65 is well-traveled and can provide access to a Dollar General in St. Joe. It is a fairly easy hitch and is the only real relevant resupply option for the second half of the lesser-traveled section of the trail.

Logistics: Camping and Water

Camping: Camping is dispersed and plentiful on the OHT. There are a number of flat spots, and FarOut has a number of waypoints marked as potential spots to set up a tent.

Water: There is so much water on the Ozark Highlands Trail that flooding can be an issue. Especially in the Hurricane Creek section, the water crossings can swell substantially when it rains. Keep an eye on the weather and the current levels of the rivers and creeks.

Ozark Highlands Trail: Know Before You Go

Weather: Shoulder season hiking comes with variable weather. I experienced rain, snow, and sunshine in late February. The weather was in the 70s one day and dipped below 20 the next. Packing the gear to weather any potential conditions is highly recommended.

Ozark Highlands Trail Resources

Ozark Highlands Trail Association

Ozark Highlands Trail Guide – Book

Ozark Highland Trail Facebook

The post Ozark Highlands Trail appeared first on Backpacking Routes.

The Ouachita Trail is a 223-mile point-to-point backpacking route in Oklahoma and Arkansas. It is a blazed trail with frequent shelters, and can be hiked in 10-18 days.

Find my Ouachita Trail gear here, and the resupply guide here.

Region: Middle South, Plains Midwest (Oklahoma / Arkansas, National Forest)
Length: 223 miles (10-18 days)

Physical Difficulty: Moderate

• Trail can be rocky and overgrown
• Most climbs and descents are mildly graded and switchbacked
• Lots of PUDs

Logistical Difficulty: Moderate

• No permit needed
• Oklahoma terminus (west) is hard to access
• Many road crossings and easy resupply hitches

Season: Fall, winter

Average Elevation: 1,000 feet
Total Elevation Gain: ~30,000 feet

Hiking the Ouachita Trail

The Ouachita Trail is almost entirely under trees, winding through the Ouachita National Forest for hundreds of miles. The western side is decidedly more challenging than the eastern side, so we started with that to get the toughest part out of the way.

This is a blue-blazed trail with incredible signage and frequent blazes. Each mile is marked (yes, every single mile) and there are gorgeous shelters every 10 miles or so. The Ouachita Trail has the wonderful Friends of the Ouachita Trail (FoOT) that works hard to care for the trail and provide resources.

All along the OT, painted and signed arrows point you in the right direction, and you’ll encounter less than two miles of road walking along the entire length of the trail. You cross a highway several times—convenient for resupply—and you also hit Queen Wilhelmina State Park, which has a lodge with a restaurant before you’re even out of Oklahoma.

The initial few days (40 or so miles) felt as rocky and challenging as the hardest parts of Northern Pennsylvania on the Appalachian Trail. (If you know, you know.) Dense layers of slick leaves obscure the rocks, so each step felt cautious and unsteady since it was impossible to know what was under the leaves. I slipped and slid for two solid days, and to make it more challenging, the trail is incredibly well-marked for the most part, but can be frustratingly obscure through this tricky Oklahoma section. Since there are so many leaves carpeting the forest, it’s hard to tell if you’re on the trail or not.

After the first few days (heading east), the trail is a lot easier to follow and the terrain is milder and easier to follow. The climbs and descents are never more than 1,500 feet in elevation change, and there are very few steep climbs. Depending on the section, some days can accumulate the elevation gain—we had a few days with 3,500 feet of gain, but the individual climbs are switchbacked and rarely gain more than 500 feet at a time.

We hit a few overgrown sections around Blue Mountain across a low ridgeline. This was rough, since it wasn’t just overgrown, but overgrown with thorns and briars. But for the most part, the trail is extremely well maintained. Some sections are dense and green with ferns, others have towering oak and pine trees.

As you cross the halfway point, the ridgelines open up and you get sweeping views of the Ouachita National Forest rippling out in every direction. It’s truly stunning and expansive—I had never been to Arkansas or Oklahoma before and didn’t know what to expect. In the last 70 miles there are a few short side trails to different pinnacles. You’ll definitely want to take them and get a view of the low-slung mountains you just traversed.

The final section around Lake Maumelle is very flat and fast. Some sections are a bit overgrown, but overall there is almost no elevation gain for the last 30 miles.

This is a very quiet trail, getting fewer than 50 thru-hikers each year. We encountered a few section hikers, and saw a couple of hunters each day. Everyone we met was incredibly kind and friendly. This is a perfect trail for a first thru-hike or an AT shakedown. It’s blazed, it has a FarOut guide, and it is amazingly well-maintained and a wonderful distance to get some real backpacking in without committing to six months of hiking.

How to Get to the Ouachita Trail

Western Terminus: Talimena State Park, Oklahoma
Closest City: Oklahoma City (3 hours)

Eastern Terminus: Pinnacle Mountain State Park, Arkansas
Closest City: Little Rock (20 minutes)

We hiked this trail eastbound from Talimena, since that’s the harder side to access and we had prearranged a ride. There is no public transportation to either end, so your options are a car shuttle, a ride from a friend, or arranging a private shuttle. If you hike eastbound, getting to Little Rock when you finish is an easy hitch from Pinnacle Mountain State Park. You can post in message boards when you’re a few days from finishing and you’ll likely get offered a ride to the airport.

There is an active Facebook group where people post car swaps and rides.

Ouachita Trail Western Terminus

From Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City, it’s a three-hour drive to Talimena State Park, and you’ll want to arrange a ride in advance or plan it with someone else in the active Facebook group.

You can also drive yourself to Talimena State Park and leave your car there for a small daily fee, then arrange a ride back through the trail community. Call the park in advance for information at 918-567-2052

Shuttles*
-Mike with Ouachita Trail Guide shuttles on the west side. 918-383-0060
-Lori, with the Bluebell Cafe at midtrail can do longer shuttles. 870-867-3999
*It’s not guaranteed any shuttle will drive you from OK City to Talimena

Ouachita Trail Eastern Terminus

From Clinton International Airport in Little Rock, it’s about 20 minutes to Pinnacle Mountain State Park. Little Rock has Uber and Lyft, which is the most obvious solution. You can also post in the Facebook group and try to share a ride with someone.

Again, there is no public transport to either end, so you’ll have to plan in advance.

When to Hike the Ouachita Trail / Which Direction

For a winter / shoulder-season trail, the Ouachita Trail is ideal. Think of it like an off-season trail compared to a “regular season” thru-hike. It never reaches over 2,200 feet, and while you might encounter freezing days and nights, it’s entirely doable throughout the winter.

Late October through late March is very possible, with the bulk of the hikers hitting it in November. We hiked it in late November in 11 days, averaging about 20 miles per day. Depending on how challenging the day was, we would hike up to two hours after dark. As the trail got easier (and I got in shape), we were able to cover 20 miles during the limited daylight hours of a late-November hike.

It’s totally fine to hike this trail in either direction. Hiking eastbound from Oklahoma gets the hardest terrain out of the way first. If you are concerned about your fitness and want to start on easier terrain, start on the Arkansas side. Our decision was primarily due to getting a ride to the western terminus.

Ouachita Trail Terrain

The Ouachita Trail is a low-elevation, forested trail. You’ll climb and descend switchbacks over low peaks for most of the hike, with much of the climbing and descending in the first half of the trail. Some sections (Oklahoma) are quite rocky, but overall you can make really good time on smooth terrain. The last 30 miles or so are almost entirely flat.

Ouachita Trail Resupply

You have a few options for resupply on the Ouachita Trail. The trail crosses numerous forest service roads, and some hikers choose to cache a few days’ worth of food in bear-proof containers at these crossings. If you go this route, you’ll need to have a decent estimate of your hiking pace, and you’ll also have to drive the entire route twice: once to drop off the food, and once to pick up the containers.

You can also send maildrops to Queen Wilhelmina Lodge at Mile 51, and Bluebell Cafe at Mile 121.

The best way to do this is with one resupply in the middle, since Bluebell Cafe will pick you up and take you back to the trail, and Mount Ida, Arkansas, has a grocery story and a Dollar General. We resupplied three times on the trail, and didn’t do caches or mail drops. It was very easy and the locations were spaced a few days apart. The first and last time were hitches into town, and the middle was calling the Bluebell Cafe for a ride.

Resupply 1, Mena, Arkansas
Mile 51 or 56, Day 3-4
Hitch from Wilhelmina Lodge or the road crossing at Highway 270. Mena has a WalMart, and it took two hitches to get into town.

Resupply 2, Bluebell Cafe / Mount Ida, Arkansas
Mile 121, Day 7-9
Bluebell Cafe is located in Story, Arkansas. They love hikers and are happy to shuttle from the Highway 270 trailhead about 20 minutes from their store. Call them in the morning and give them an estimate of your arrival time to the trailhead. If they give you a ride, be sure to get food at the cafe and buy something. They are a tiny local business who does a lot for the community. We got a ride from a customer into the nearby town of Mount Ida, where they have a local store and a Dollar General.

Resupply 3, Hot Springs Village, Arkansas
Mile 155, Day 9-11
There is a large trailhead at the Route 7 road crossing here, and it was fairly busy. You’re only 65 miles from the end, so we just bought a few days’ worth of food from the Dollar General. We also ran into Warren Doyle at McDonald’s (???), making for an easy ride back to the trail.

Logistics: Camping, Water, Hunting Season

Camping: Camping is free and frequent along the Ouachita Trail, with amazing shelters spaced every 10 miles or so off well-signed intersections. There are numerous campsites with fire rings, and even if you don’t see a listed campsite on Gaia or FarOut, there will be a nice flat spot nearby, guaranteed.

Water: Water can be a concern on the Ouachita Trail, but if you keep track of water sources and streams on your app or map, you’ll be fine. We carried enough bottles for a three-liter capacity, and never ran out. There were two potential 20-mile waterless stretches, but even with that, there were a few icky streams we could have used if we were desperate.

Local trail crew and trail angels will often cache water at crossings and in shelters, but totally relying on other people’s caches is never smart. If you use the last of a gallon jug at a cache, do your part and strap the empty bottle to your pack and pack it out.

Hunting Season: The prime time to hike the OT is also whitetail season in Arkansas. We saw more hunters than hikers. Everyone gets along well and respects each other, but not a day went by when we didn’t hear shots ring out in the woods. You really, really need to wear at least one piece of blaze orange during an OT thru-hike. I totally spaced on this and didn’t wear a piece of orange, and I was fairly nervous at times. I respect hunters immensely and I trust them to know where they’re firing, but it should have also been my responsibility to keep myself safe by wearing blaze orange. A blaze hat, pack cover, or vest would have been fine.

Ouachita Trail Know Before You Go

Weather: A late-fall / winter thru-hike means being prepared for everything from 50 degrees and sunny to days and days of fog and rain. The visibility was low at times, which can be especially challenging when night hiking in the fog. Good rain gear is a must.

Shorter Daylight: Since this is a shoulder-season hike, you have far fewer daylight hours to hike. Plan accordingly—if you don’t like night hiking, you might hike fewer hours and your hike will last longer. If you’re night hiking, be prepared with a good headlamp (at least 300 lumens) and plenty of spare batteries, or a battery pack to recharge your headlamp. This was something I did not plan for, and had to buy a second headlamp in Mena.

Shelter and Trail Courtesy: The Ouachita Trail has the unique position (at least in my trail experience) of being a trail with a lot of amazing amenities and also very low foot traffic. As word of this trail spreads, the foot traffic will increase. Be respectful of the shelters, campsites, and resources. Don’t leave food as “trail magic” in the shelters (it attracts mice), and really take the time to appreciate the incredible pride and care that the FoOT and trail volunteers put into this corridor.

Ouachita Trail Resources

Friends of the Ouachita Trail

Friends of the Ouachita Facebook (they also make groups for each hiking year)

Bluebell Cafe Facebook

The post Ouachita Trail appeared first on Backpacking Routes.

The Great Smoky Mountains 127-mile loop is a challenging route in the popular Great Smoky Mountains National Park that can be completed in 8-10 days.

Region: Middle South / Deep South (Great Smoky Mountains National Park)
Length: 127 miles (10-15 days)

Physical Difficulty: Difficult

• Steep terrain
• Daily drastic elevation change combined with lots of rainfall
• Roots/rocks/mud/frequent stream crossings

Logistical Difficulty: Moderate

• Permits required
• Loop trail
• No opportunity for food caching or resupply

Season: Spring, Summer, Fall

Elevation (average): 3,954
Total Elevation Gain: 34,725

Days to Complete

Hiking the Great Smoky Mountains National Park 127-Mile Loop 

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park 127-mile loop is a moderately ambitious route made of seven or eight different trails through Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It’s not a formal route. Rather, it is a sample route we designed to showcase a variety of Smokies terrain and elevations while being completed in 8-10 days. We encourage you to view this loop as a jumping-off point in designing your own route through the Smokies. Or, you know, just hike ours! We’d be flattered (and we think it’s fun). 

Hikers unfamiliar with the Southern Appalachians might find this route surprisingly challenging despite its relatively low elevation. Steep ascents and descents (and almost no switchbacks) challenge the knees, while large amounts of rainfall, high humidity, and lots of stream crossings keep you and your gear wet almost continuously. Hiking east from the car, you’ll hug Fontana Lake for a few days before swinging northeast into the mountains proper, and from there you’ll ascend and descend over the central spine of the park several times before taking the Appalachian Trail back down to the trailhead. 

Higher elevations in the Southern Appalachians (such as Clingmans Dome, which you’ll hike over on day five of this itinerary) are technically temperate rainforests. In short, you can count on getting rained on, no matter what time of year you do this hike. 

Another thing to keep in mind when hiking this route is that views are few and far between—and likely to be obscured by clouds and mist even when you find them. It’s best to focus on the small gems of this landscape. Time-lapse photographers will love the gushing streams, deeply shaded hollows, and dripping moss. The Southern Appalachians have the most varieties of salamanders of any ecosystem in the world, and you are sure to see a few on your hike. In the spring, the mountain laurel and rhododendron burst into bloom, while smaller, less-ostentatious (but no less beautiful) wildflowers decorate the trailside in the summer and early fall.

A final small pleasure is the variety of bridges that cross the various larger streams. These bridges range from old trail trestles to single logs to everything in between. And as you might expect from an area with such rainfall, you’ll be fording a lot. 

How to Get to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park 127-Mile Loop 

Closest Major City: Knoxville, Tennessee (55 miles)

We designed this loop to be accessed from the southern end of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, near Bryson City and Fontana Dam.

Lakeshore Trailhead West (where you’ll begin and end your hike) is only 90 minutes southeast of downtown Knoxville. Asheville, North Carolina, is about twice as far away (101 miles), while Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (just south of Atlanta) is a 2.5-hour drive (185 miles).

Parking is somewhat limited at Lakeshore Trailhead West, especially if you arrive at the trailhead in the afternoon when day hikers are accessing the trails. Best to get here first thing to make sure parking isn’t complicated. This parking area is monitored daily by rangers. Don’t leave any food in your car to tempt the bears, and you should be fine. 

When approaching the trailhead, your best chance for a variety of food and beverage before embarking is definitely Bryson City, North Carolina, although the Wildwood Grill in the Fontana Village Resort and Marina serves a mean burger and an inexpensive glass of beer. The restaurant is open to the public, even if you don’t have a room at the resort.

When to Hike the Great Smoky Mountains National Park 127-Mile Loop

Fall is a lovely time to hike in the Smokies, especially if you are a leaf peeper. The deciduous forests of the lower elevations display a variety of golds, ambers, and scarlets difficult to find elsewhere in the South. Fall also happens to be the season of lowest precipitation in the Smokies. Every other time of year, including the late spring (our other recommended hiking window), you can count on 10 to 15 days of precipitation a month, meaning you’ll get rained on about once every 48 hours or so (or more). 

You can count on almost six inches of rain in July, with similar numbers in the surrounding months, especially looking backward into the spring and winter. That’s quite a lot of moisture, considering that the average annual precipitation in the US in 2017 was 32.21 inches.  

We certainly aren’t saying you can’t hike this loop in the summer. But just know what you’ll be getting into: heavier crowds (this is a national park, after all), muggy, chafing-inducing air quality, frequent thunderstorms, and (probably) a near-constant drizzle.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Terrain

This loop traverses a well-traveled and popular national park, even if most of those visitors never get out of their cars. The upshot is a well-maintained trail system that is remarkably free of crowds, especially once you get deep into the park and away from tourist attractions like the Clingmans Dome overlook and gift shop. The park rangers do a great job of keeping the worst blowdowns sawed away and overhanging bushes and rhododendron from overtaking the trail, but with over 800 miles of trails in the park, they’ve got their work cut out for them. Expect to push past some nettles and branches, and navigating over, under, or around large blowdowns is not uncommon. 

When it rains (which, as we’ve said, it most absolutely will) much of the trail will be indistinguishable from creek beds. Rocks, logs, and roots are plentiful and slippery. The many bridges in the park are also extremely slippery. Use particular caution when fording creeks, especially during the spring and early summer. 

Some of the trails in this loop have a steep grade, yet another reason to use caution when walking in the rain or just after a rain.

Logistics: Camping, Resupply, Permits, Water, Bear Cables, Land Designation

Camping: Camping along this loop (and in every part of Great Smoky Mountains National Park) is only permitted at established sites. See our permit section below for more info on reserving a camping site. We spaced the campsites on the route according to our own pace and desires. Feel free to do the same, or deviate from our route as needed depending on your hiking style. 

When camping at a campsite with shelters (similar to what you’d find on the Appalachian Trail), you must stay in the shelter. Our loop avoids shelter campsites, but if you modify it you may end up staying at some. Each campsite has a max number of campers allowed, capped during the permitting process. 

Resupply: We completed this route without resupply, though it did make for fairly heavy packs in the first few days. On this route, there are no areas to cache food or buy a meaningful supply of dinners or breakfasts. There is a small gift shop half a mile of road walking down from where the route crosses over Clingmans Dome. They might have some candy bars for sale, depending on how COVID-19 affects their hours of operation. When the route crosses through the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont (an educational facility that runs residential programs for school-aged children) a sharp-eyed hiker might spot some vending machines that are open to the public. Come prepared with dollar bills, because these machines don’t take soggy tens or twenties. Trust us, we tried. 

Permits: In order to backcountry camp in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, you’ll need both a reservation and a permit for each campsite. The system is calendar-based and fairly easy to navigate—we had no problem figuring it out, though you’ll want to have identified your desired campsites prior to beginning your reservation using this map. If you run into trouble, call the backcountry office at 865-436-1297. We found them to be friendly and responsive as we were planning our route. 

Backcountry reservation fees will cost you $4 per person, per night, and cap at $20 per person. You can make reservations up to 30 days in advance, or as late as the day your hike begins (though this could severely limit your options). You can only book seven nights at a time; after that, you must check out, pay, and begin a new reservation. You can stay up to 30 nights in the park. You can’t stay at any one campsite for more than three nights, and you can’t stay at any shelter for more than one night. When you are ready to book your sites and obtain your permit, click here.

Water: Water is extraordinarily plentiful along this route, with the exception of the few times the route follows the Appalachian Trail. Because the AT mostly sticks to the ridge leading up to and away from Clingmans Dome, water sources are more sparse in this section. Still, we comfortably completed this route with only two liters of water storage capacity.

As always, we recommend treating your water via chemicals, UV light, or filtration. That goes double for the water in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which is hemmed by densely populated areas and sees a lot of yearly visitors. Water in the park is cold, so keep that in mind if you are using something like Aquamira to treat your water (cold water needs to be treated for longer). 

Something else to note about water: Great Smoky Mountains National Park forbids the use of camp soaps to wash dishes—even the biodegradable kind (and this restriction also includes castile soaps like Dr. Bronner’s). This is a small price to pay for protecting the salamanders. 

Bear Cables: Every campsite along our route has functional bear cables. The black bear population in Great Smoky Mountains National Park is dense, and you can certainly expect to have a negative bear encounter if you don’t store your food and other smellables properly at night. This system is great news for those who hate carrying bear canisters (and, really, don’t we all?).  Click here to see proper use of Great Smoky Mountains National Park’s bear hanging system. 

Land Designation  Our route is entirely enveloped by Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  National parks have some of the strongest protections of any land designation. Note that dogs, drones, and mountain bikes are all prohibited inside the park. Find out more here.

Know Before You Go 

Moisture and Humidity: We’ve talked at length about the rainfall you’ll likely encounter on this route. It’s also worth noting that dense vegetation and constant moisture make for a very humid environment. Don’t expect wet socks to dry out, even if you put them on the back of your pack for a day. Once your gear is wet, chances are it will stay that way, more or less. For this reason, we recommend using synthetic insulation bags and outwear on this loop. We’re also fans of non-waterproof, highly drainable trail runners instead of heavier Gore-Tex “waterproof” footwear on this route.

Hypothermia: In the spring and fall (and occasionally during the summer) it won’t be unusual to encounter constant rain paired with temperatures in the 40s and 50s. This is classic hypothermia weather, so use caution, and bring well-tested rain gear. We also recommend bringing along a separate tarp for this trip so that you have room to stage your gear, cook, and lounge outside your tent when it is raining. 

Because of the hypothermia danger, we recommend bringing a classic canister stove that can heat liquids quickly and reliably (and that can function in the rain). This is no place for an ultralight wood-fired stove. 

Wildlife: You are likely to see bear sign (footprints, scat) on the trails, and don’t be surprised if you catch a glimpse of a black bear staring at you through the dense understory.  Use common sense black bear precautions (make noise every now and then, remove all food and toiletry items from your shelter at night, never approach one, and stand your ground if one charges) and you’ll be fine. 

In recent decades elk have been reintroduced to the Smokies. Keep your eyes open, though you are much more likely to hear one bugling than you are to see one! 

Clouds and Mist: A little research of the Smoky Mountains will turn up the classic Southern Appalachian view—layer upon layer of soft, low hills vanishing into the horizon. And indeed, it’s possible you might see that view on this route. But it’s much more likely that your view will be obscured by clouds and mist. You should embrace this—it’s just the way it goes in the Smokies!

Smoky Mountains Resources

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Backcountry Regulations

Smokies Backcountry Permits

Smokies Backcountry Camping Map

The post Great Smoky Mountains National Park 127-Mile Loop appeared first on Backpacking Routes.