The Chimney Tops Hike

This past Saturday we finished what has been our toughest hike yet – the trip to Chimney Tops. While the hike is only two miles, 95% of it is uphill. One blogger has said that it is like being on a stairmaster for two to three hours. The children actually did fairly well, meaning, they didn’t complain a whole lot. In fact, Anna (our youngest) led the way most of the time and we never heard a peep from her. If you keep a steady pace and don’t stop, you could probably make the hike in two hours or less; however, we stopped a couple of times for breaks, pictures, site viewing, and chipmunk watching. It took us a little over two hours to go up and just short of an hour coming down.

If you have ever traveled on 441 from Gatlinburg to Cherokee – which is the main road that goes straight through the National Park – then chances are you have seen these Tops. Coming from Gatlinburg, the tops are around 7-9 miles (can’t remember) into the park. You’ll pass the Chimney Tops picnic area, wind around a little, and then the whole right side of your view begins to open up. Just before passing through a tunnel, you’ll see the Tops staring you right in the face. They look like Camel humps. The Cherokee name is Duniskwalgunyi, or “forked antler”.

If you look at the “hump” on the left, you might be able to see someone standing almost dead center. Try this one:

Spooky looking, isn’t it? Almost looks like you’ve spotted a ghost or an alien or something.

The trail kinda teases you at first. Almost immediately you come to a bridge that crosses over a beautiful creek, with plenty of big rocks to hang out on, fish from, and even jump from for a swim. You think, “oh, this is going to be nice.”  Once you cross another bridge or two and get to the other side, your dreams of  having a nice, flat stroll through the woods are immediately squashed. No sooner had we finished that first climb, Amanda was hollering, “Water! Water!” haha. The climb is not long and eventually evens out for a little bit, only to bring you to another one that is steeper and longer. At one point, you are literally walking up a rock staircase. According to the trailhead sign, you will climb 1,7oo ft in elevation! To bring some perspective for our Alabama friends – Cheaha Mountain, the highest point in Alabama, is only 2,413 ft.  For our Floridian friends…well…never mind. ( :

Once you get to the top, the last 5 minutes or so involve walking out to the edge. The trail starts to get very narrow and even has you walking on roots and around trees. Finally, you arrive at the Chimney Top rock climb. At this point, you are approx. 4,8oo ft above sea level, with an awesome 36o degree view. Well, almost. The only thing blocking your 360 entirely is the rock wall.

It was difficult to tell how hard the rock climb would be. Amanda and Kaylee did not even bother at first. I took Alexis, Anna, and Jordan about a third of the way up and then decided this was probably not a good idea. It was getting too steep, with no “safety nets” below. Anna is too short, Alexis is too clumsy at times, and Jordan may not have been tall enough himself. While the “wall” is plenty wide, the drop to the left is straight down into the valley.  If one were to slip off to the right, a small trail below would stop your fall, but the fall would be great enough to definitely break some body parts. I took them back to the bottom and decided to test the rest of it on my own. While it was fairly easy, there were definitely some spots that the kids would not have been able to climb. I would not recommend this rock climb for children or anyone scared of heights.

Once at the top, your 360 degree view is unobstructed and AWESOME! Definitely one of the coolest views i have seen thus far. While i was up there, Amanda and the kids had wandered around the right side of the rocks, and there we found another pathway up that looked a whole lot safer than the one i took. While i was still uncomfortable with letting the girls go, i did let Jordan climb with me right behind him. It was a piece of cake for him.

We didn’t see any bears or deer on this trip; however, when we got to the bottom of the trail, a couple behind us told us that we had walked right past a cub. They were about 30 yards behind us the whole trip down and said that they heard a twig snap about 20ft off to the right side. They stopped and saw the cub chilling out in the grass. Rats! That would have been cool…i guess. haha. They didn’t know where momma bear was and i didn’t want to find out.

All in all, the hike is definitely worth a trip and a great exercise at that.

Check out the short video of four clips that i meshed together HERE. Sorry for the shakiness. Part of that was because i was tired and another part of it was that i was trying to keep a close eye on Jordan. I didn’t want him “exploring” on top of those rocks. By the way, i have no idea why that cross was up there. Hopefully it was not a memorial.

Enjoy!