Happenin’
Places › Tennessee › Clingmans Dome
Clingmans Dome

Photo: ljb06 / CC BY 3.0

⛰️ Mountains

Clingmans Dome

Bryson City, TN · Great Smoky Mountains

About

At 6,643 feet, this is the highest point in Tennessee and in all of the Great Smoky Mountains, and the half-mile paved climb from the parking lot earns you a 360-degree sweep from a spiral observation tower that looks like it spun up out of the spruce-fir forest. On a clear day the blue-hazed ridges stack to the horizon for a hundred miles; on a hazy one the fog rolls through the silvery Fraser firs and you understand where the Smokies got their name. Bring a layer, since it runs ten to twenty degrees cooler up here than down in Bryson City, and time it for sunset if you can.

Highlights

Highest point in Tennessee at 6,643 feetSpiral observation tower with a 360-degree viewBlue-hazed ridge views up to 100 miles on clear daysHalf-mile paved walk from the parking lotSpruce-fir forest with iconic Fraser firs

Getting there

Related places

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Mountains

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Gatlinburg, TN · Great Smoky Mountains

The most visited national park in the country, Great Smoky Mountains drapes the Tennessee, North Carolina border in blue, misty ridgelines, old growth forest, and some of the richest biodiversity in North America. Drive the Newfound Gap Road over the spine of the Appalachians, chase waterfalls on easy trails, and roll through Cades Cove at dawn for black bears, deer, and weathered pioneer cabins. Entry is free, and the park stays open year round, with spring wildflowers and fiery autumn color drawing the biggest crowds.

Cades Cove Mountains

Cades Cove

Townsend, TN · Great Smoky Mountains

A wide green valley ringed by the hazed blue ridges of the Smokies, reached by an 11-mile one-way loop that the herds of deer and the occasional black bear treat as their own. John Oliver's 1820s log cabin and three plain white pioneer churches still stand in the meadows where families farmed for more than a century. Come at first light, before the cars stack up, when fog is still lifting off the grass and the mountains are doing exactly what the name promises.

Yosemite National Park Mountains

Yosemite National Park

Mariposa, CA, CA · Sierra Nevada

Yosemite is a Sierra Nevada showpiece where glacier-carved granite walls, thundering waterfalls, and ancient giant sequoias crowd into one valley floor. From the visitor hub in Yosemite Valley you can crane your neck at El Capitan and Half Dome, chase spring waterfall spray, or drive up to a viewpoint that frames the whole high country. It is one of the most scenic and worth-the-trip national parks in the country, though summer crowds and seasonal road closures reward visitors who plan ahead.

Part of these collections

Curated guides that feature Clingmans Dome.

The Blue Ridge Mountains26 places

The Blue Ridge Mountains

The ancient, blue-hazed peaks of the southern Appalachians, threaded by the Blue Ridge Parkway from Shenandoah to the Smokies. Mile-high summits and the highest peak east of the Mississippi, waterfalls you can walk behind, long-range overlooks, and mountain towns like Asheville with the Biltmore at their heart. Go in October for the color, but the haze is blue year-round.