Hiking Trails of the Great Smoky Mountains [With Map]

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.

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.

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.