Back to Stone Door!

Since hiking at the Smokies we’ve wanted to get back to the Stone Door area and hike some more of the challenging trails which we weren’t quite ready for, last time we were there. Record highs over the past few weekends have kept us from doing any hiking. Finally last weekend, a Saturday rolled around with a forecast high under 95, so we headed out.
This time we were going to tackle the Big Creek Gulf Trail with a side trip to Ranger Creek Falls at the bottom of the canyon. This trail is one of the most challenging trails in the park, and Joe remembers it vividly from his 70 mile hike as a Boy Scout. This was when Joe learned from personal experience about the importance of having water when hiking. When he hiked this trail at age 12 he was totally unprepared, and had to rely on his scoutmaster’s water to keep him alive. We felt that since we hiked to Chimney Tops in the Smoky Mountains a few weeks ago, we were physically ready to hike this trail, as challenging as it was.
Going hiking seems to be a growing addiction. The more we hike, the more we want to hike. When we first got married, Amber wasn’t really into hiking. She would go with Joe every now and then but she didn’t really enjoy it. But now after working up to hiking we both look forward to the next hiking trip and discovering what natural wonders we may encounter next. Saturday morning, Joe had a hard time sleeping in since he was so excited to go hiking again on this trail. He woke Amber up as gently as he could by kissing her all over her cute, little sleepy head.
We started today’s hike on the same trail that we started hiking the last time we were here, the Laurel Trail. This trail was simply a way of getting to our destination trail, and we thought of it no more then just that, a long but easy 3 mile hike through the woods. We didn’t realize this trail would set the tone for the adventures we would encounter throughout the rest of the day, encounters with nature. We heard and saw hawks and different types of birds flying through the trees but our most memorable experiences today would be with the little bitty creatures. This trail was full of little froggies, different kinds of crickets we had never seen before, and beautiful butterflies. One even found a nice place in the sunlight right in front of us and posed just long enough for us to get a good picture of him before flying away.
Three miles and two hours later we finally arrived at the Big Creek Gulf Trail. From here the trail got interesting, as Joe likes to call it whenever a trail gets dynamic. The trail steeply descended into the canyon on an old logging road, a very rocky old logging road. Joe remembers hiking up this, what seemed like an eternity of climbing when he was a scout. Throughout the day we were on and off this old logging road as the trail traversed the passable sections of road, but veering off on a rocky and twisty, and sometimes steep bypass around sections of the old road that had been washed away, the whole while we were following alongside Big Creek. This is an interesting area.
When we first got to the bottom of the canyon there was water flowing in the creek. But after a half hour of hiking, the creek turns silent because the water disappears into a cave and reappears a few miles later downstream. Also since this area is so lush with vegetation, it didn’t really feel like we were hiking at the bottom of the canyon. All we could see were trees, cliffs, and an occasionally a dry riverbed. As we hiked deeper into the canyon we saw many more cute little froggies and even came across a baby cicada, still in his shell. He seemed to be having trouble moving. We wondered how much longer until he would break out of his shell and fly away, but didn’t have time to stand around and watch and wait.
It felt like it was dark because of the dense canopy of trees above us. Most of the trail seemed really dark, especially when the trail took a bend and put us in the shadow of a canyon wall. A lot of the time we were rock-hopping and avoiding close-encounters with evil poison ivy, which was everywhere down here.
After a couple hours of hiking, we arrived at the junction of the Ranger Falls trail. This trail was a little harder to follow, as it crossed the dry, rocky bed of Big Creek. We got off the trail a few times because we lost sight of the markings on the trees that indicate where the trail is. Amber saw a little snake on the rocks, and gave a little yelp! It was a cute little bitty snake with an orange ring around his neck. We wanted to catch him but he was too fast, and slithered down into the rocks and hid. We had to backtrack to find the trail, but finally got back on course. Ranger Falls was a half-mile away from the main trail, along side a day tributary stream bed leading to the waterfall. Joe couldn’t help, but wonder what would happen if a soaker of a storm suddenly came over and turned these peacefully dry creek beds into raging rapids. We would probably be stranded for a while.
Closer to the waterfall, we could hear the sound of rushing water. Since it had been a dry summer, we were wondering if there would be any water falling. We arrived at the falls, put our packs down, and Amber was the first to go behind the waterfall. Ranger Falls is an interesting waterfall; it doesn’t have a plunge pool like most falls do. All the water drains down into a cave at the base of the cliff, which explains why the stream leading to the waterfall was dry. It’s probably the same cave that Big Creek occupies. Looking at the waterfall and the surrounding area, it looks like the waterfall was created by a giant sinkhole. It makes for a good place to take a natural shower in the summer. The water felt good after hiking for hours in the hot summer.
We headed off, since the sun was starting to set. From the junction of Ranger Falls, the Big Creek Gulf trail followed the creek bed for another couple miles before junctioning with the Connector trail, then a mile climb straight up to Stone Door. We had a nice little scare on our way up… There was a branch across the trail, and Joe started kicking it to try to get it out of the way, then he noticed in his peripheral vision, less than a foot away from his left foot, something long and black was moving. He looked over at it, saw that it was a big black snake, and let out a high-pitched girlish scream! The snake was care-free until he heard that scream. He curled up into a ball and watched us closely. We slowly walked by him, and he watched us closely. Phew! He wasn’t poisonous, but we didn’t want to get bit anyway.
We arrived at the junction of the Connector trail, and started climbing, and climbing, and climbing. The sign said it was only for a mile, but it sure didn’t feel like a mile. We just kept going up and up and up, steeper and steeper. We just kept at it, slow and steadily. Whenever we started feeling tired or sick, it was time to drink water. The water really is the source of life.
Finally, after climbing what seemed like forever, we got to the wooden staircase that took us up to the base of Stone Door. We rested…tired and exhausted! From here, it was the grand staircase through the stone door, then a mile of easy walking to the ranger station where our car was waiting for us. We ended up hiking for 9 miles again. This was definitely the most challenging and physically intensive trail we have hiked so far. At least until we go to Utah next month…
On the way home we stopped by A&W and got some root beer floats, since Joe had been craving root beer since Ranger Falls!