We did this “hike” on July 30, 2006.
We walked up to the observation tower from the parking lot. The walk up was on pavement but the hill was pretty steep. There wasn’t much to see from the observation tower because we were surrounded by fog.
Dirigo
Signage
Observation Tower
Mushroom
Red Flower
We hiked just a little bit on the AT and then went back to Gatlinburg.