Alum Cave - Bullhead - Old Sugarlands

Date: 1/30/16
Distance: 15.9 miles

On this glorious day, I had the pleasure of hiking with the Meetup group up to Mt. Leconte.  We met at the Sugarlands Visitor Center at 7:15 (yawn!) for today's adventure.  We piled into a few cars and took the short drive up to the Alum Cave Trail.  There was no snow at the SVC and for most of the drive up to the trail, but just before reaching the parking area, the ground became snow covered.  We put all of our gear on and hit the trail about 7:45.

The trail was snow covered for nearly the entire trip up the mountain.  It had been packed down so that the hiking wasn't too difficult.

 The day was just spectacular.  At the Bluff, I decided the ice was getting too dangerous, so I put on my Microspikes for the rest of the trip up the mountain.

 Up top the snow was more than 1' deep.  If you stepped off of the beaten path, you would sink in up to your knees.  Leconte is just a beautiful place and especially so today.

 We took the 0.3 mile spur up to the Cliff Tops, it wasn't packed down as well, so it was a bit of a trudge up the hill, but the views were off the charts.  However, the wind was howling and I quickly got cold, so I didn't stay long,  We went back to the lodge and sat in the sun for lunch.

 After a lunch, I decided that I'd hike back down Bullhead  and Old Sugarlands to my car which was waiting at the Sugarlands Visitor Center.  The main part of the group returned on Alum Cave.  Anoria decided she wanted some extra hiking as well, so we set off down Rainbow falls for 0.6 miles and then took Bullhead down the mountain.  Bullhead was nearly as well packed down, so we were hiking in some deep snow for the first few miles.

Bullhead has some great views on its 5.9 miles.

 After about 4 miles, we got out of the snow and it warmed up dramatically.  I was all of the way down to shorts by the end.

 At the end of Bullhead, we turned left on Old Sugarlands for the final 3.5 miles to the car.  Anoria filled me in on the "clock tower" at the CCC camp on Old Sugarlands.  Apparently it had a clock on it and the workers would get their assignments off of a notice board on the tower.

Today was a big challenging hike in the snow with some good company.  It was a super nice day in the snow.