6,643 Feet Above Sea Level and Then Some

"An exotic insect from Europe, the balsam woolly adelgid came to North America on nursery stock," notes the Great Smoky Mountains guide pamphlet produced by the park service. "In 30 years, it has killed most mature Fraser firs in the park -- once the home to 75 percent of all Fraser firs in the world."

Bummer. Ghost Fraser firs are all too evident on the trail up to Clingman's Dome, which we walked on July 1. It seems that it's been a bad few decades recently for that kind of tree. (More on the pest adelgid here.)

A seven-mile road branching off Newfound Gap Road -- one just as twisty and narrow as that main road -- leads to a parking lot. From the lot, next to a bathroom complex, begins the half-mile walk up to Clingman's. The sunshine was bright in mid-afternoon, with only a few puffy clouds in the sky, but at that altitude, it wasn't that hot. A lot of people were walking both ways: singles, couples, families, little kids, older folks, quite a variety. The four of us made our way up too, though not all at quite the same pace. I made use of a number of the benches along the way for momentary pauses.

By hard-core hiking standards, the trail up to Clingman's probably isn't really hiking, just a walk on a steep, paved footpath, albeit one that ends at the highest point in Tennessee, as well as the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains NP and the Appalachian Trail. On the other hand, by fat-man standards, the way up was a fairly tiring course, though not impossibly hard. Climbing up that damned dune in Michigan last year was a lot harder.

At the top (elevation 6,643 feet) is a space-age concrete observation tower. Literally, since it dates from 1959, but also stylistically. To reach the top, you follow a spiral path to the 360-degree observation deck.

Once there, you discover that the Smokies are smoky indeed -- much of it pollution, I understand, like the London "fog" of old. A hazy view punctuated by ghost trees, yet worth every step to see it.