Customer Reviews

Hiking Trails of the Great Smoky Mountains : A Comprehensive Guide

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book has everything you could possibly want to know about hiking and backpacking the smokies. the only downfall is that there's almost too much information.

I've owned my copy about a year. At first, I was a bit overwhelmed with the comprehensiveness. After using it to plan and go on two 3-night hikes in the GSMNP, I have come to greatly appreciate this book and especially its layout. Mr. Wise needs to be commended on the organization of the material. His trail descriptions are arranged by sections or watersheds, which corresponds to entries points to the Park. This allows the hiker to more easily plan since all the connecting trails descriptions are grouped together. I own three hiking trail books on the Smokies, and I keep coming back to this one.

Plenty of information on pretty much all the trails in the park (including some that aren't officially maintained, and some informal routes to trailless peaks). Not as useful as the "standard" guidebook (which is just called "Hiking Trails of the Smokies"), partly because it's too bulky to take along on the trail and doesn't have elevation profiles. Lots of good historical material though: good for reading at home before and after your hike.

The best book of it's kind I've seen yet. Not only an excellent guide to hiking the Smoky's, but also full of interesting tales and tid-bits about the history of the area. Highly recommended.

And no, the author did not misspell Smoky Mountains.

Having many hiking books of the Smoky Mountains this is by far still the best one out there. The discriptions of the hike is why you buy this book. The discriptions tell you what you are looking at, history, and land. I look at other books and then reference this one as to what the hike really is like and what I am going to encounter and see along the way. Also there are hikes and places in this book you will not find in any other book for example: Mills Creek Falls Trail which cannot be found in any other book because this trail today is not a maintained trail in the park but is easily found and hiked. This may be an older book but is still the best. An oldie but still a goodie.

Yes a very complete guide, but a little over the top. reads like "the Hobbit" in places. More of mediocre prose than a hiking guide. With so many Smokies guides out there guess you have to be different. Quite short on facts on off trail routes...this is a shortcoming.

This book is the most complete guide on Smoky Mountain trails I have ever reviewed (although somewhat dated). I would recommend this book to anyone.

At 446 6" by 9" pages, this guide is one of the largest hiking guides you will find on the market. Unfortunately, much of this ink and paper has not been put to particularly good use, in my opinion.

First let me start with some basic facts about this guide. This guide describes in categorical and systematic fashion every hiking trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The author even includes some routes that are not official trails (more on this later). If there is a trail in the park to suit your ability and desire, you will find it here. The author divides the park into 13 distinct sections, mostly by watershed. The author does not describe hikes per se, only trails. Since most of the trails in the Smokies do not form loops, you will be on your own to choose a route to hike. Each trail includes a list of major points of interest and the mileage to each one from the trailhead, a set of driving directions to the trailhead, and a detailed description of the trail. The descriptions are a bit dry, but they are informative and actually work rather well given the format of this guide. Each section has a map, but maps for individual trails are not provided. Also, there are some nice old pictures in this guide. While they sometimes give a false indication as to what you might see on the trail because they are so old, someone with an historical bent might find them interesting.

While describing every trail in a hiking mecca such as Great Smoky Mountain National Park would seem to make a good hiking guide, such is not the case in my opinion for the following reasons. First, the author describes some trails that are not actually trails. For example, the author describes the Porters Creek Trail as terminating at the Appalachian Trail (AT) when, in fact, the official trail ends at a campsite 2 miles below the AT. If you try to hike this last 2 miles, you will find that the trail quickly disappears past the campsite, so you end up bushwhacking through dense forest over very steep terrain, assuming you don't give up and turn around or, even worse, get lost. The author doesn't indicate that this last 2 miles is not maintained, so a hiker using this guide expecting to hike to the AT would be in for a very unpleasant and perhaps dangerous hiking experience. I know of a few other cases where this problem arises, but for a review, I think one example makes the point.

Second, the author does not indicate how trails could be combined to form a loop. Moreover, no summary table is provided to help you choose a trail to hike. Thus, you will have to read large quantities of this guide to find a trail suitable for your hiking abilities and desires. This fact makes the guide hard to use. Third, the guide does not include trail maps. A map is provided for each section, and these maps may serve to get you oriented with the section, but they are too general to be of much use once you get on the trail.

In summary, this guide has enough problems that I can't go too high with the rating. If you are looking for a guide that systematically and categorically describes every trail in the Smokies, this guide may be for you. If you are planning a vacation or just looking for a guide to give you some nice day hikes, you will definitely want to look elsewhere. Overall, given the large quantity of good Smoky Mountain hiking guides available on the market (the Falcon Guide by Kevin Adams is my personal favorite), I can't really recommend this guide to a wide audience.

I didn't get past the title, they spelled SMOKY wrong. Smokey is a name, like Smokey the bear. Smoky is a place... as in the Great Smoky Mountains. How comprehensive can it be if they didn't get the name right?