Customer Reviews

Hiking Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Regional Hiking Series)

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My family and I just returned from our vacation in the Smoky Mts. This was one of the two guides we used during our stay and it was very helpful. As parents of two smaller children, ages 5 and 8, we needed a guide that included shorter day hikes and not just the overnight type. This guide did just that. Here's what I liked and didn't like about the book:

Things I liked: The way it broke down each hike with acurate descriptions of the trail, what you can expect to see while hiking it (the highlights), where to find the trail head, a topicgraphical-type picture showing where the hills are on the hike, personal information about the trail and its history as well as beautiful pictures. The trails are organized by location within the park so when you're at a particular part of the park, you can zero-in on those hikes in that area. There are also maps to show you where the trail meets up with other trails in the area.

Things I didn't like about the book: Though the maps are helpful for showing the specific location, I found myself having to check our park map to be able to pinpoint exactly where the trail was located. I wish the book would include a more "overview" park map as well. Also, since we were looking for trails which were around 6 miles round trip or less, the author had a habit of running two or more trails together to form one big hike. Many of these hikes were ten-plus miles long. He did this to form a loop rather then having to back-track, but it would have been nice if he could have given the shorter version as an option.

Overall, I would certainly recommend this book to anyone. For those seeking to take 8-10 mile hikes or some over night hikes, this book is ideal.

We also purchased at the park visitor center, two maps - Water Falls and Day Hikes ($1 each) - which were actually VERY helpful! The dayhikes were about 5 miles round trip or less with a very brief description. At the visitor center, we also purchased a book called Smokies Road Guide which gave some background information about each section of the park and has beautiful colored pictures. For those who like to plan ahead, the maps and book can be ordered off the internet at the park's website.

This guide is typical for Falcon - First Rate. It has good trail descriptions, a mix of historical information, and the handy guide to get you to the right trails quickly. The only thing I'd like to see is a page dedicated to small scale reference maps at the beginning of each section. The trail maps are fine, but too close in to see the relative placement of the trails. Besides that, and a few typos, this is everything most folks would need for the park. This book is a definite buy.

Anyone in the market for Smoky Mountain hiking guides has plenty to choose from. In my view, this one comes in at the very top.

This guide describes 82 hikes in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The hikes range greatly in difficulty from flat 0.5 mile nature trail strolls to challenging 30+ mile multi-day backpack treks. The hikes are located almost uniformly throughout the park with 45 hikes in Tennessee and the rest either on the state line or in North Carolina. Not every trail in the park is described, but enough quantity and variety will be found here to keep most hikers busy for a long time.

Each hike contains a nice grey-scale map, directions to the trailhead, a detailed elevation diagram (drawn to scale) showing the trail's ups and downs, and an excellent trail description. I guess it would have been nice to have the elevations on the map (like a USGS topo map), but the method used here seems to work fine. The trail descriptions give good guidance on the trail without getting bogged down in excessive details or overly mechanical measurements. A few obvious examples of cut and paste can be found among the descriptions, but these cases are the exception.

With regards to the Appalachian Trail, Adams does commit a section to describe the Smoky Mountain section of the AT. However, this section comes at the end, and since many parts of the AT are covered in earlier hikes, the AT section often mounts to a list of references to earlier sections. Thus, those looking for dayhikes on the AT will find plenty to like here, while those looking for a complete, self-contained description of the Smoky Mountain AT will need to look elsewhere.

In summary, I have several Smoky Mountain hiking guides on my shelf, and this one is the best of the lot. If you absolutely require that every trail in the park be described, then you should buy "Hiking Trails of the Great Smoky Mountains" by Kenneth Wise in addition to this book. However, Wise's book has some significant flaws, as I have detailed in my review of that book. Most people will find all they need in Adams' book, and I highly recommend it.

It's a great, very detailed book if you're local and want to experience all the great day hikes. The author does a wonderful job dividing them into categories - from couch potato to training to be a navy seal! However, none of them are longer than 1 nighters - he says you can split some of them up into two nights... but if you're out there to backpack for multiple nights, you're probably not interested in 6 mile days, right? I would suggest buying a good map of the park to go with this, if you're interested in multiple night outings in the Smokies. That way, you can plan a longer route, but use the book to reference details on the trails you'll be on.

This book made our trip! Adams' trail descriptions and ratings were spot on. We came to rely on this guide when planning our daily outings.

Reverence for the Park and those who work there came across clearly in his prose, but there was plenty of delightful humor as well (as in the list of Hikes for People Training to be Couch Potatoes!).

Just got back from a trip to the Smokys where we spent three nights camping (Cosby campground) and two days hiking. This book was informative for pre-trip planning and very useful for choosing which trails you want to hike. I felt that the author's scale of "moderate" and "difficult" (we hiked one of each) was accurate and I also appreciated the step-by-step descriptions of the trails itself (when you're hiking along three different trails and come to several intersections, this is useful).
One reviewer noted that they were all day hikes - I was surprised by this, because I found several 1 and 2 over nighters that I'm tempted to invest in backpacking gear for and another 2-4 night hike that sounds like an awesome challenge. I think this book is very comprehensive, a good collection for the beginner, moderately-experienced and experienced day hiker, along with several ideas for backpacking trips.
This is an excellent hiking guide that I would recommend for anyone planning on hiking in the Smokys.

I found this to be a great hiking guide to a place I knew nothing about before arriving. It is very imformative on difficulty of the hikes and what the scenery will be like so you can plan your visit accordingly. I would recommend this book to any level of hikers wanting to leave their car and really see the Great Smokey Mountains from the trail. The guide is so thorough it made it hard to narrow my choices down for the five days of hiking I would be exploring. The only complaint (if you can call it that) would be to include a area map that showed the park in its entirety at the beginning of the book so you can begin to aclimate yourself to where trailheads are located, etc...The book does recommend picking up a map at the visitors center upon arrival, I am just a planner and want to know everything in advance.

This is by far the best hiking book we have ever found! We picked this book up about four years ago for a return visit to the Smokies. Since then, it is the book by which we judge all other hiking books. We own about a dozen covering six states, but this one is the best. The author does a great job listing the hikes in multiple, helpful categories (see the Trail Finder matrix near the front). The descriptions are an appropriate length, relatively accurate, and helpful along the trail. His directions to the trailheads are right on the mark. If you only intend to buy one hiking book for the Smokies, you won't go wrong with this one!

I bought this book for a vacation to the Smokys. I used it to pick the trails best suited for my ability's. I found it to be very accurate on its trail ratings and descriptions. A must have for improving the quality of your hikes.

Another awesome hiking book for the Smoky Mountains. My husband and I are using this book to plan our next overnight hike. The descriptions are great. The descriptions of the route to the trail heads and the parking areas are wonderful. Great book. Wouldn't plan another hike without it.