Rich Mountain Loop

Saturday—time for another hike. The Rich Mountain Loop is another hike that can be reached by a short walk from the Cades Cove Campground. It starts across the road from the Visitor Kiosk at the beginning of Cades Cove Loop Road. The entire loop is about 8.5 miles, closer to 10 including the walk to the trail head from our camp sites.

Sally came with us (without Nina the dog, since dogs aren't allowed on the trails in this park) and we expected only to do about five miles total, rather than the whole loop. It was a 1750 climb to the high point and that seemed like it would be a bit much. Up the hill we went. There were quite a few stream crossings, all fords, but we could pick our way across the rocks and not get wet. There were many stops by Ellen & Sally to take wildflower photos. It is very much wildflower season in the Smokies.
Every time we considered turning around, the consensus was that we could go a little further. Finally, we could go no higher...and we were at the halfway point. There was no turning back now. What we actually did at this point was take a side trail to the top of Rich Mountain (Cerulean Knob) and stopped for lunch.
There were the foundations of a tower at the top, which provided seating and there was quite a view. On one side was the view down into Cades Cove and the other side was a view down into farmland just outside the park. The top of the knob was right on the park boundary.
After lunch it was the long walk down the other half of the loop, with more wildflowers and more stream crossings. It was actually steeper on the downward side than on the upward trek. The trail came out at the Oliver Cabin, the first building on the Cades Cove loop, but continued through the woods roughly paralleling the road back to the Visitor Kiosk.
Photos