AT Crossing - Newfound Gap, Tennessee
Posted by: DougK
N 35° 36.657 W 083° 25.478
17S E 280384 N 3943505
The Appalachian Trail is easily accessible at Newfound Gap. There are two signs at this point a mileage marker sign and an interpretative sign from the NPS.
Waymark Code: WMMZCG
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 11/28/2014
Views: 40
I believe both of these trail signs are actually in Tennessee, but the crossing into North Carolina is just steps away. The interpretive sign says:
You are standing on alongside the Appalachian Trail, one of the longest continuous footpaths in the world. The trails winds more than 2150 miles through 14 states. Few stretches are more remote or difficult than the section through the Great Smokies. Here the trail follows some of the highest ridges in the Appalachians, paralleling the Tennessee-North Carolina border for 70 miles.
Hiking the trail is not easy and neither was building it. Here in the Smokies during the 1930s, hundreds of Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) workers cut rock, felled trees, and built shelters - shaping the path that extends like a narrow ribbon from Georgia to Maine.
Here at Newfound Gap is a parking lot and restroom facility. Hiking north from here, one heads towards Mt LeCont, while hiking south from here, one comes to Clingmans Dome, the highest point on the Appalachian Trail. These AT signs can be found just to the right of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial.
Visits to this waymark may be posted with a photo of either of the two signs, since they're so close together.