Every season in the mountains of Southern Appalachia comes with its own charms and beauty that can make hiking a familiar trail a novel experience. Blooming wildflowers, fall colors, and snow clinging to trees are the most readily apparent seasonal highlights that make Great Smoky Mountains National Park such a paradise for hikers and backpackers. While the park is technically the most visited unit in the national park system, in nearly a dozen trips there I have found the backcountry to be surprisingly uncrowded. Additionally, the online reservation system used to book campsites is perhaps the most user-friendly of any that I’ve encountered when planning trips to areas that require permits for backpacking.

Colorful section of the Twentymile Trail in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Planning Your Hike in the Smokies

I’ve backpacked in the Smokies in each season, and while all the trips were enjoyable given the right gear and preparation, fall is without a doubt my favorite time to visit. The heat and thick humidity of summer have waned, precipitation is often minimal, and the forest becomes a mosaic of colors only seen in this fleeting and magical time. Diverse hues and variations of red, yellow, orange, and brown replace the predominant greens of the deciduous trees.

Timing a trip to ensure you’re hiking in peak fall color can be a bit challenging, especially if visiting the park necessitates booking a flight or other logistical arrangements that are ideally or most economically handled a month or more in advance. The arrival, duration, and quality of the fall colors are impacted by weather in the weeks and months leading up to when the leaves change color and drop to the forest floor. Too much or too little precipitation, sustained periods of above-average warmth or below-average cold, and the subtle interplay between those and other conditions all play a role and make it a bit of a gamble to reliably plan a trip months in advance. However, fall color occurs earlier at higher elevations and later in the valleys, which can often provide some measure of opportunity for consolation prizes if your trip ends up being a bit premature or tardy as long as your route takes you through the different levels of the park. Unfortunately, a cruel twist can occur in the fact that the colors can be perfect, but a severe thunderstorm or wind event can pass through and knock many of the leaves down.

A five-lined skink in the fall colors at Great Smoky Mountains National Park

With those disclaimers out of the way, I’ve found that late October is a fairly dependable time of year to backpack in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and see fall colors. After solely backpacking in the West for the past five years, I was eager to return to the southern Appalachians to visit a friend and enjoy a three-day backpacking loop in the Smokies during my favorite season. The itinerary for our trip allowed for an exceptional and not overly strenuous three-day adventure in the Smokies. While some of the campsites in the Smokies do reach capacity on fall weekends, there is not typically the same rush on permits – even for premium sites – that occurs for backcountry sites at other parks, such as Glacier National Park or Yellowstone National Park, and require management through a lottery system. If you plan your trip for mid-week, it is entirely possible that you will have one or even all of your chosen campsites to yourself.

A 3-Day Loop Starting at the Twentymile Trailhead

Leaving from the small parking area at the Twentymile Ranger Station (rarely staffed and with no amenities available) in the southeast corner of the park, our trip began in an area far removed from the hustle and bustle of trailheads closer to Gatlinburg or other more popular areas of the park. Since we had planned on a late start due to travel from Nashville, we chose to stay at a campsite close to the trailhead. Twentymile Cascade, roughly a half-mile into the hike, is a point of scenic interest but the whole trail is rather pleasant. Following an old jeep road makes it easy to saunter along side-by-side with your hiking partner and enjoy conversation while soaking up the scenery. Upon reaching our campsite, which was located close to the trail with several nice nooks for tents as well as a fire ring and bear cables for hanging food, we had a choice to either relax at camp or fish for trout in the stream. In our case, we arrived just as an all-night-long rain moved in so we spent our evening at camp under a tarp cooking and sipping tea. Campsites close to the trailhead are perfect opportunities to consider packing in heavier food and drinks to enjoy around the campfire on the first night before downgrading to the more common backpacking meals on the second night, where your campsite for the day will involve more elevation gain.

Our route then led to the Appalachian Trail via the Twentymile Trail. This trail was never steep, but certainly had a purposeful incline as it climbed out of the valley. Hiking along a trail through forest popping with fall color is a sublime experience. It provides a sense of wonder and appreciation. However, the old cliché about not being able to “see the forest for the trees” can be accurate when applied to the limited views from the trails, as well as many ridges and peaks in the Smokies. While you are able to appreciate the colors on individual trees and the sections of forest you are immersed in, opportunities to truly see the fall color phenomenon on a landscape-wide scale are somewhat rare. One of the best opportunities to rise above the colorful canopy and see the big picture is from the Shuckstack Fire Tower.

The view from the top of the Shuckstack Fire Tower

Located less than a mile from the junction of the Appalachian Trail and Twentymile Trail, the Shuckstack Fire Tower is a must-see side trip if you’re already in the area. While not an ideal destination for those prone to acrophobia, the views from the top are worth overriding any butterflies in your stomach that might arise from walking up the several flights of stairs to the top. A small cab at the top provides a secure place from which to enjoy the 360-degree views that can easily entertain eager-eyed hikers for an hour or more. On a blue sky day with near peak fall color, the view is absolutely blissful and it can seem harder to leave the lookout and its spectacular views than it was to hike up to it in the first place.

From the lookout, our route headed north on the Appalachian Trail and included a detour to Birch Spring Gap to filter water. While normally there is a spring close to Sheep Pen Gap that is the water source for that campsite, it had been a dry autumn and park rangers were warning that the spring could be running low or dry and that it would be prudent to arrive at that campsite with all the water needed for your stay. As we filtered water from the spring, a buck moseyed through to nibble on some of the vegetation. A short while later, another buck arrived and the two engaged in playful sparring, seemingly oblivious to our presence. We watched them for the better part of half an hour before continuing on, somewhat appropriately, to Doe Knob which was our next junction.

Gregory Bald offers wonderful views of the Great Smoky Mountains.

From Doe Knob, we swung west to Gregory Bald and enjoyed beautiful hiking along an undulating ridge. The final climb to Gregory Bald occurred during the golden hour of light and the already colorful foliage was bathed in an enchanting glow. Gregory Bald is one of several balds (basically mountain meadows) in the Smokies that allow for expansive views and the novelty of being able to walk around unencumbered by trees and shrubs. Knowing that it is a great place to stargaze, we hiked the short distance down to Sheep Pen Gap to set up camp and then returned to the bald for dinner and stargazing.

The Hike Back to the Trailhead

The next morning, we packed up and began the descent to the Twentymile Valley. Shortly after leaving Sheep Pen Gap we passed through Parson Bald, which unlike Gregory Bald is not being maintained by the National Park Service to remain open and free of crowding vegetation. Thus, Parson Bald has become overgrown and feels more like slightly thinned-out forest than a meadow. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful place to walk through before starting to drop down via the Wolf Ridge Trail.

Our trek down Wolf Ridge Trail was beautiful and, for the most part, uneventful until we ran into two other backpackers who were paused along the trail. A black bear with two cubs had crossed the trail a few moments earlier and they were giving it the appropriate time and space to not stress the animals. After about ten minutes, we rounded the corner together to assess the situation. The two cubs were high in a tree and the mother was nearby, but did not appear threatened or overly concerned with our proximity. We observed from a safe distance and then continued down the trail. Between the bucks sparring and the bears, the wildlife viewing on the trip was some of the best I have experienced.

The lower reaches of the Wolf Ridge Trail are some of my favorite, as rhododendron ensconces the trail and a mountain stream tumbles below it. It is a section of trail that could go on for many miles and I wouldn’t find it monotonous. However, it ends all too soon at the junction with the Twentymile Trail a half-mile from the parking lot. Not ready for our trip to be over yet, we took advantage of the mid-day warmth and sunshine to splash around in the creek and enjoy cold soaking in basins scoured out in the bedrock sections of stream bottom. Rinsed and refreshed, we then finished the hike back to the trailhead and ended a perfect fall backpacking trip on what seemed like an almost impossibly high note.

Sparring bucks provided us with entertainment during a stop at Birch Spring Gap.

Need to Know

Information

Permits are required in advance and are $8 per person, per night with a maximum fee of $40 per person per permit. These can be booked on the park’s website up to 30 days prior to your trip. One neat feature of the reservation system is that it allows you to see how many other campers have currently booked the site. For certain areas of the park, like the Twentymile Creek area, where only a few easy miles might separate one campsite from the other, you can choose the one with less people without throwing off your itinerary.

As of 2023, the park also requires parking tags for vehicles. The costs are currently $5 for daily, $15 for weekly, or $40 for an annual tag. Both the permit and the parking tag can be purchased here on the NPS website.

Best Time to Go

The Smokies offer something for hikers year-round and for the most part are accessible even during the deep winter months. Winter provides quiet, few crowds, and some spectacular scenery when ice and snow are present but the humid cold and mixes of precipitation make it a less-than-ideal month for an extended backpacking trip. Spring offers abundant displays of wildflowers and mild temperatures, but weather can still be chilly and snowy at higher elevations. Summer is a popular time to visit and is often rather hot and humid. Fall is, as noted in this article, one of the best times to visit and late October is a good bet for catching fall colors.

Getting There

The Twentymile Trailhead is located off of North Carolina Hwy. 28 west of Fontana Dam and east of Deals Gap and the junction with US Hwy. 129. Reaching this parking area from the Tennessee side of the Smokies requires driving the "Tail of the Dragon" section us US 129 – 318 curves in 11 miles – which is an experience in and of itself. The small parking area is just behind the seldom-staffed ranger station and, given its remoteness, this trailhead is rarely crowded. No bathrooms or other facilities are available at the trailhead.

Maps and Books

The National Geographic Trails Illustrated Map for Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an excellent resource for on-trail backpacking trips in the Smokies. A non-topographical map is also provided by the park and is useful for trip planning but contains a bit less detail than is desirable for use on the trail.

The guidebook Hiking Trails of the Smokies by the Great Smoky Mountains Association is a fantastic source of information about hiking trails, campsites, and water sources in the park and, in my opinion, is one of the most well-formatted and useful guidebooks I have ever used. While it doesn’t describe loops or routes in detail, it instead documents each individual trail, requiring a little research on your own to develop a route. The Falcon Guide: Hiking Great Smoky Mountains National Park is also available.

For additional information to plan your trip to the Smokies, National Geographic provides the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Day Hikes Topographic Map Guide, which has detailed maps and trail profiles for each featured hike. Another resource to discover hikes in the park is Top Trails: Great Smoky Mountains National Park: 50 Must-Do Hikes for Everyone by Johnny Molloy.

Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in Issue 45 of TrailGroove Magazine. You can read the full article here for additional photos.