The Alum Cave Trail, also known as Alum Cave Bluff Trail, is a

hiking trail A hike is a long, vigorous walk, usually on trails or footpaths in the countryside. Walking for pleasure developed in Europe during the eighteenth century. Long hikes as part of a religious pilgrimage have existed for a much longer time. " ...

in the

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in the southeastern United States, southeast, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline o ...

, in

Sevier County, Tennessee Sevier County ( ) is a county of the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 98,380. Its county seat and largest city is Sevierville. Sevier County comprises the Sevierville, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area, which ...

. The trail ascends Mount Le Conte, the sixth highest mountain east of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

, and passes by many notable landmarks, such as Arch Rock, Inspiration Point, and the Duckhawk Peaks before merging with Rainbow Falls Trail near the summit.

History

The first recorded account of Alum Cave goes back to 1837 when three farmers, Ephraim Mingus, Robert Collins, and George W. Hayes from the

Oconaluftee Indian Village The Oconaluftee Indian Village is a replica of an 18th-century eastern Cherokee community founded in 1952 and located along the Oconaluftee River in Cherokee, North Carolina, Cherokee, North Carolina, United States. History The Cherokee "living ...

in the Great Smoky Mountains applied at the Sevier County (Tennessee) Land Office for a grant of a tract of land that would include Alum Cave and its salt deposits. Tennessee sold the tract of land to the three men on December 6, 1838. The Epsom Salts Manufacturing Company was formed to mine the deposit. The materials mined were

alum An alum () is a type of chemical compound, usually a hydrated double salt, double sulfate salt (chemistry), salt of aluminium with the general chemical formula, formula , such that is a valence (chemistry), monovalent cation such as potassium ...

magnesium sulfate Magnesium sulfate or magnesium sulphate is a chemical compound, a salt with the formula , consisting of magnesium cations (20.19% by mass) and sulfate anions . It is a white crystalline solid, soluble in water but not in ethanol. Magnesi ...

saltpeter Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with a sharp, salty, bitter taste and the chemical formula . It is a potassium salt of nitric acid. This salt consists of potassium cations and nitrate anions , and is therefore an alkali metal nitrate ...

, magnesia, and

copperas Iron(II) sulfate or ferrous sulfate (British English: sulphate instead of sulfate) denotes a range of salts with the formula Fe SO4·''x''H2O. These compounds exist most commonly as the heptahydrate (''x'' = 7), but several values for ...

. The easily accessible salts were depleted by the mid-1840s, but mining resumed during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

by the

Confederate Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fi ...

Description

The Alum Cave Trail is the shortest and steepest of the five trails leading to the Le Conte

massif A massif () is a principal mountain mass, such as a compact portion of a mountain range, containing one or more summits (e.g. France's Massif Central). In mountaineering literature, ''massif'' is frequently used to denote the main mass of an ...

, which contains five separate peaks in all, the highest of which has an elevation of . Because of its short length and scenery (it is often considered Le Conte's most scenic route) it is the most common footpath for hikers seeking to reach the summit of Le Conte. The entire trail is within Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The trailhead is from

Gatlinburg, Tennessee Gatlinburg is a city in Sevier County, Tennessee, United States. It is located southeast of Knoxville, Tennessee, Knoxville and had a population of 3,577 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is a popular mountain resort town, as it ...

, off Newfound Gap Road ( U.S. Highway 441).

Route

The trail begins its ascent at elevation, quickly crossing Walker Camp Prong and its tributary, Alum Cave Creek, which the trail then follows. This first leg of the trail is a gradual climb on a well maintained footpath through an

old-growth forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Natio ...

, consisting largely of hemlock and

yellow birch ''Betula alleghaniensis'', the yellow birch, golden birch, or swamp birch, is a large tree and an important lumber species of birch native to northeastern North America. Its vernacular names refer to the golden color of the tree's bark. In the p ...

. The trail turns north along Styx Branch, which it follows for a short distance to ''Arch Rock'', a large black slate rock forming a natural arch under which the trail passes. The trail climbs to Inspiration Point, an

outcrop An outcrop or rocky outcrop is a visible exposure of bedrock or ancient superficial deposits on the surface of the Earth and other terrestrial planets. Features Outcrops do not cover the majority of the Earth's land surface because in most p ...

of rocks about in elevation, which on a clear day offers views of the surrounding landscape, most notably Little Duck Hawk Ridge. Not far from there, from the trail head, is ''Alum Cave Bluff'' at in elevation, and with sandstone cliffs in height. The first half mile or so beyond the bluff is the single steepest portion of the hike, and included in this section is ''Gracie's Pulpit''. Named for the

matron Matron is the job title of a very senior or the chief nurse in a hospital in several countries, including the United Kingdom, and other Commonwealth countries and former colonies. Etymology The chief nurse, in other words the person in charge ...

of the mountain, Gracie McNichol, who famously hiked the trail on her 92nd birthday, the pulpit marks the halfway point of the Alum Cave Bluff Trail. From here the onlooker can get as clear a view as any other along the trail of the four peaks of Le Conte: West Point, Cliff Tops, High Top, and Myrtle Point. As the trail crosses elevation, the landscape is dominated by dead trees, caused by

balsam wooly adelgid The balsam woolly adelgid (''Adelges piceae'') is small wingless insect that infests and kills firs. In their native Europe they are a minor parasite on silver fir and Sicilian fir, but they have become a threat especially to balsam fir and Fra ...

and

acid rain Acid rain is rain or any other form of Precipitation (meteorology), precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Most water, including drinking water, has a neutral pH that exists b ...

affecting the

Fraser fir The Fraser fir (''Abies fraseri''), sometimes spelled Frasier fir, is an endangered species of fir native to the Appalachian Mountains of the southeastern United States. They are endemic to only seven montane regions in the Appalachian Mountains ...

. A prolific crop of young Fraser firs grows in many of these areas. At the terminus the trail merges into the Bull Head Trail just west of the Mount LeConte Lodge. The lodge provides the only commercial lodging in the national park, as it operates about ten rustic cabins with no electricity or appliances. The actual peak of Mount Le Conte and the overlooks of Cliff Tops and Myrtle Point are a short distance from the lodge.

References

External links

Alum Cave
at

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

{{coord, 35, 38.31, N, 83, 26.77, W, display=title Great Smoky Mountains National Park Hiking trails to Mount Le Conte Protected areas of Sevier County, Tennessee Rock shelters in the United States