The Great Smoky Mountains National Park straddles Tennessee and North Carolina. Newfound Gap Road (U.S. 441), which travels north from Cherokee, North Carolina to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, forms the backbone of the park and climbs to over 5,000 feet at Newfound Gap.

If national parks have specialties, the Smokies is known as a hiker’s park. The scenery is diverse: mountain views, old-growth trees, waterfalls, streams, and more shades of green than a paint chart. Trails are well-maintained and easy to follow. Mile for mile, hiking is much easier here than in the neighboring national forests. Though there are no blazes on Smokies trails, they are so well-marked at every intersection that you can follow them with confidence.

The Smokies may be the most visited national park in the country but only the roads and parking lots are congested. With over 800 miles of trails, even popular trails are not very busy.

For an introduction to the Smokies, read the Smokies primer or go right to the details.

Map needed: Great Smoky Mountains National Park National Geographic Trails Illustrated # 229