Of the over 800 miles of foot trails in the park, the Alum Cave Bluff Trail is considered by most to be the loveliest. Having backpacked or hiked over 600 miles of them myself, sometimes with as much as thirty pounds of photographic equipment when I was younger, I agree. For the first mile or so it meanders on either side of Alum Cave Creek which is strewn with large boulders moved here by a series of spectacular floods. In this stretch it is lined by ancient rhododendron. The trail then climbs 20’ through a stone staircase formed by water slowly eating its way through the core of a large rock. In another mile it comes to a heath bald (members of the heath family dominate: rhododendron, sand myrtle, mountain laurel, blueberry) and a stone outcropping which affords a wonderful view of the valley of the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River. Within several hundred yards it reaches the feature from which the trail gets its name: The Alum Cave Bluff. In a landscape dominate by vegetation, this massive exposed stone is a thing of rare beauty. From here the trail becomes steeper and makes it way to the summit of Mt. Leconte, which to me, is the heart of the park itself.