December 11, 2009 – Posted by Stacie
Clingmans Dome has one of the most beautiful views in the Smoky Mountains National Park. That is, if you can see it. Many times when you reach the top, you are literally standing in the clouds. You’d be lucky to see your hand in front of your face!
A few weeks ago, while visiting the park, we decided to go photograph the sunset from Clingmans Dome. When we pulled up in the parking area, we could see nothing. Occasionally, a mountain top would peek out of the clouds, but our hopes of having a beautiful sunset were not looking good. After about 10 minutes of debating on whether or not we should make the hike up to the tower, we finally decided, “What the heck!” and started our climb.
For those of you who have not been to Clingmans Dome, you need to know about the climb up to the lookout tower. It is only a half mile walk on a paved trail, but this trail is steep. Really, really steep. Luckily, there are benches along the way for you to stop and rest. After stopping a few times to catch our breath, we made it to the top of the tower to find ourselves standing right in the middle of a cloud. While it is a very cool feeling to be standing in the clouds, it’s not what we were hoping for on this particular day.
We waited a few minutes, hoping that it would clear up, and finally, we could see that things were changing. The clouds that had just blocked our view, were now rushing past us, and settling down into the mountains. Soon, we were standing above an ocean of clouds, that stretched all the way to the horizon. The colors from the setting sun were like nothing we had ever seen. It was incredible.
This was the perfect end to a wonderful day in the Smokies.
