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Backpacker Magazine – October 2004
High Points: Clingmans Dome, Tennessee
A downright goofy dome marks this highpoint.
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Tags:
- Feature stories |
- Tennessee |
- Great smoky mountains |
- Appalachian trail |
Elevation: 6,643 feet
Summit
Bordered by Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, two tacky, traffic-clogged tourist towns, the 521,495-acre Great Smoky Mountains National Park has 800 miles of trail, 1,600 species of flowering plants, countless mountain vistas--and more visitors than any other national park. Located 50 yards off the Appalachian Trail, the Dome is downright goofy: The 54-foot central concrete pillar on top looks like a cross between a flying saucer and an air traffic control tower with a wheelchair-accessible ramp curving up over spindly pines.
Contact: Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP), (865) 436-1200; www.nps.gov/grsm/
USGS Topo: Clingmans Dome
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READERS COMMENTS
This place is awesome.It just makes you all mad that its the most visited park in the us.I have read most of your article on The great smokey mountains. I will not subscribe to your magzine
again.Please send somebody with common sense who can write a hiking article.
This place is awesome.It just makes you all mad that its the most visited park in the us.I have read most of your article on The great smokey mountains. I will not subscribe to your magzine
again.Please send somebody with common sense who can write a hiking article.
Just made the trip this past weekend with my wife. I agree with Mr. Waller. Nothing "goofy" about it. Awesome view on a clear day. Sounds like the reviewer had a bad experience.
I never found the lookout tower atop Clingmans Dome to be "goofy", it's unusual and interesting, and accessible. I don't know what's goofy about that.
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