Georgia to Maine, Straight Up
A hike from Cades Cove to Clingmans Dome simulates walking from North Georgia to Maine. You will begin in Cades Cove amidst oak and pine forests which also grow in northern Georgia. Your walk will end atop Clingmans Dome in spruce-fir forests characteristic of Maine and Canada. In between you will hike beneath the canopies of oak-hickory-red maple forests that characterize Virginia, and the northern hardwoods of Massachusetts. The reason for this localized insight into the whole of the eastern United States forest types is the vertical rise of the Great Smoky Mountains. The Smokies’ highest peaks stand 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) above its lowlands.
The axiom is this: here in the Smokies, elevation gain simulates a shift to more northerly latitudes. Of course, this is a generalization. On an actual hike from Cades Cove to Clingmans Dome you would have to detour a lot to take in all the variety of eastern U.S. forest types. But all except true alpine tundra are here, although not laid out in a straight line.
In rough attempts to measure the Smokies’ local climates, the rule of thumb is that spring advances up the mountains. At lower elevations, for example, spring beauty blooms by early March. At 1,500 meters (5,000 feet) elevation, however, it may still be in full bloom two to three months later.
Remarkably, the Smokies provide a plant laboratory encompassing most of the eastern U.S. major forest vegetation types. This, and the fact that virgin forests are rare in the East, make it no wonder that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has been designated an International Biosphere Reserve.
This international recognition of and commitment to preserving the Smokies underscores the park’s wealth of natural history.
You need not be an expert to observe this. Sharp eyes and curiosity will in themselves unfold great portions of this natural history lore for you to ponder.
In the first low reaches of your one-day trip from Georgia to Maine here in the Smokies, crossvine, grapevine, or lady’s-slipper (photo) may be blooming. These flowers, like the Virginia, pitch, and shortleaf pines, cling to the warmest local climates. They also follow the driest slopes and ridges only part way up the mountains. As you gain elevation you quickly leave these species behind.
The contrast between your lowlands trailhead and the 1,800-meter (6,000-foot) summit is amazing. Even the chickadees change en route. The Carolina species holds forth down here in the cove, but gives way to the black-capped chickadee somewhere around 1,500 meters (5,000 feet). The fence lizard is a dry, pine woods creature. Like the Carolina Chickadee, it generally avoids higher elevations.
Each animal and plant drops out at a different limit as you gain altitude, but more than half of your journey will be through deciduous forest, of the cove hardwood type or oak woodland. Smokies forests are rich: there are more tree species here than in all of Northern Europe.
As you travel the lower forests you will probably hear the songs of the ovenbird, wood thrush, and pileated woodpecker, birds you would hear in mature timber throughout the eastern United States. The gray squirrel and the box turtle, both familiar creatures, will be occasional trailside companions in these broad-leaved woodlands.
The basswood tree is considered an “indicator” of the cove hardwood forest type. The magnolias, with their oversize leaves, catch the eye of most people traveling south from, say, Pennsylvania, when they hit the Smokies. Almost a natural “cultural shock,” these trees announce that you have arrived in a different place. Magnificent magnolias appear along the trail, thinning in number and decreasing in size as soon as you leave the cove.
Along streams and on the shaded slopes below 1,220 meters (4,000 feet), look for rosebay rhododendron, yellow buckeye, basswood, yellow-poplar, and other cove hardwood “indicator” species. They signal that you still have a ways to go in your day’s climb.
Rosebay rhododendron
Yellow buckeye
On the cove forest floor in spring you may be lucky enough to spot the great white trillium. It was popular after the Civil War for decorating graves and so has become, in many places, a scarce plant because of this practice. It is protected here in the national park, as are all plants, animals, historic structures, and archeological artifacts. Please respect these—and the right of others who follow you to enjoy them in their natural or historical setting.
The red squirrel’s raucous chatter—you can’t believe such a small creature makes such a big racket—tells you that you are leaving the cove forest. The “boomer,” as it is known locally, will likely announce your presence periodically to the whole forest from here clear to the top of the mountain. Farther north these red squirrels may be called pine squirrels; out west, chickarees. Some would argue over the species involved, but not over the noise they make!
The songs of the winter wren and veery, a thrush, also signal that you have climbed above the cove now. But the northern bird of the mountains that excites us here is the raven. This resourceful bird, often mistaken for the smaller crow, eats anything small enough and drives away anything that’s too big to eat. That’s an exaggeration, but ravens are contemptuous even of hawks aloft in the same windstream.
The spruce trees announce that you have gotten to Maine at last! The blackish coloration of spruce forests reaching here and there down off the crests of the Smokies is conspicuous in all seasons. It is from this coloration of spruce stands that the nearby Black Mountains of North Carolina are named. The spruce-fir forest is a product of winter cold and summer rain in such a combination that prevents their invasion by deciduous trees just down-slope.