Hiking Guide - Moderate-Strenuous

With Labor Day behind us, most of the tourists who clogged the roads into and out of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park all summer have departed. They will be back in October, so take advantage of September by taking a hike to Ramsay Cascades.

This trail offers many attractions, including rushing water along much of its length, abundant wildflowers, glimpses of rare old-growth forest and, at its end, one of the park's most stunning waterfalls. Actually, I'm told it's not a waterfall but a cascade. I personally can't tell the difference.

When the wildflower pilgrimage starts in the Great Smoky Mountains this week, a wild crowd of flower seekers will be thicker on the ground than trillium.

To miss the madding crowds, head in the other direction, to the Cumberland Plateau. The hike to Laurel, Sheep Cave and Virgin falls in White County near Sparta, Tenn., is an exceptionally fine trek that's bejeweled with wildflowers and enhanced with singing waterfalls that appear magically from underground streams and then crash into mossy caverns.

Winter hiking offers a very special kind of beauty. The winter winds sweep away the brownish smog that's usually at its peak at the end of summer. The skies never seem to be as blue or the clouds as white as on a blustery day in the Smokies.