April is a stressful time in the academic calender – midterms and essays come due, senior theses, academic advising, preparation for final papers and projects. It all piles up in the weeks after Spring Break.
So I like to get away from campus whenever possible this time of year and head down the road to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Townsend entrance is only about 15 miles from campus (and about the same from my house). While the trees are yet to show off their full bloom, the streams are too cold to wade in, and the rhododendron canopy has yet to give that great trail tunnel feel, there is one great thing to see this time of year: wildflowers.
The Smokies are home to the greatest diversity of flaura and fauna of any park in the Northern Hemisphere. The views are great here, but the trees, flowers and plants are amazing.
A great place to visit is the trail right at the Townsend Wye called the Chestnut Top Trail. The first half mile has dozens of wildflower species right at your feet. This video shows some of the wildflower offerings this time of year on Chestnut Top.
I hiked this trail just yesterday. What’s amazing about it is how much it changes from week to week – and how much the trail changes once you pass the first half mile. After reaching the top of the wildflower hillside the trail turns and begins to resemble Arizona or southern Utah – lots of pine trees. In fact, one of the amazing things about the park is the changing elevations and consequent climate patterns. At the lowest elevations – around 750 feet above sea level – the weather is hot and sticky in summertime and rhododendron are abundant. Climb further up and you get hardwood trees and mountain laurel, and then you reach the Frasir firs at 6,000 feet. The climate up around Clingman’s Dome or Mt. Leconte is more like that of Quebec than Tennessee.
Here are some of the wildflowers you can find this time of year. If you’re looking for a relatively inexpensive vacation and you live in the eastern US, the Great Smoky Mountains are a great place to visit.
Rhododendron
White Trillium
Yellow Lady Slipper
Jack-in-the-pulpit
Spring Beauty