Hiking Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Falcon Guide Hiking Great Smoky Mountains National Park)

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.

We often visit the Smokies and enjoy the short hikes and quiet walkways. This guide lists hikes that we never knew were there. Each one is listed with a rating (easy, moderate, difficult), the length, amount of time to complete, exact location where to find it along with an easy to read map. We especially liked the descriptions of the hikes from start to finish. At the begining of the book a handy classification of hikes is listed so that you can quickly find what you are looking for, ie. waterfall hikes, hikes to avoid if you don't want to see a lot of people, hikes for people training to be couch potatoes, etc. This is a great guide and a great purchase

Kevin Adams has written a succinct, yet thorough, guide book to the trails of the SMNP. Everything is here. Adams leaves out the platitudes and leaves in the practical. From advising on safety and comfort to equipment and nourishment, the author gives imminently usable information for these beautiful trails and makes them call the reader to the mountains. Great book!

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!).

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.