Smoky Mountains 900 Mile Challenge Kick Off Trip!

 We decided to kick off this challenge at the end of the year in 2024.... we were excited to get started and had thought about waiting until 2025 to start but we decided this would be a great way to end 2024 and bring in 2025!

We chose to do four trails to give us a good start. Obviously we had to start with the Gatlinburg trail! This trail starts at the Sugarlands Visitor Center and takes you to Gatlinburg and back to the Visitor Center. It is about 4 miles total with very little elevation gain. This trail is one of only two trails that allows dogs. 

Our next trail was Metcalf Bottoms. This trail is a short 1.5 mile out and back trail. You are hiking up, up and up for this first half. When you reach the top you will find the historical Little Greenbrier School House and cemetery. This was a nice short hike!

Trail number three was Middle Prong Trail to Indian Flats Falls. This trail is 8.5 miles out and back with a gradual uphill hike until you get to the turn around point at the falls. The falls were not marked with any kind of trail sign, but we had read how to find it. If you were not looking for it though it is very easy to miss. This trail was my favorite of the trip and one I will definitely hike again! This was a great trail to start of 2025. Most of this trail follows the cascades which are gorgeous. We ended up with about 1,300' of elevation gain. 

Our final trail for this trip was Abrams Falls. This was also a really beautiful trail and also part of Cades Cove! It snowed a bit during this hike which made it feel even more magical. We chose to do the full segment, so this ended up being around 8.5 miles. If you just hike to Abrams Falls and back it is 5 miles. We were wanting to get credit for the entire segment, so we chose to do the full trail. We ended up with 1,200' of elevation gain which was spread throughout the hike.

We really enjoyed this kick off trip. It is nice to know we have an entire park we will get to explore over the next few years and also have a pretty tough challenge ahead of us!