Earlier this week I went on a business trip to Knoxville, Tennessee. I’ve been to Nashville before, so I was pretty excited to see a different part of the state. The first thing I noticed was how close I was to the Smoky Mountains. Unfortunately, it was winter and that meant shorter days and I wasn’t sure how much time I’d have after work or even before/after my flights.

I was very fortunate to have landed with the sun still pretty high in the sky. I very quickly used the All Trails site/app to find a nearby trail that I could do a quick hike on before the sun sank below the horizon. What I found was Look Rock Tower Trail.

I was pretty pleased to have found a trail so close to the airport and also with an observation tower! The parking lot had a viewing area which was already gorgeous.

I headed out onto the trail, and though it was short there was a pretty significant grade to the path. I was pretty surprised at how noticeable it was for the 0.5 mile trek to the observation tower.

I kind of expected a pretty standard fire tower when I reached the end of the trail like I saw at Custer State Park. But I was pretty astonished at how lovely the aesthetic of the tower was. From there the view around of the landscape was breathtaking. You could see the nearby cities with the backdrop of mountains. I will never stop being amazed at how the mountains crisscross across each other as they disappear into different shades of blue as you get further away. You can really understand why they say “Blue Ridge Mountains”.

The sun had just started going down when I got there so I was able to snag a pretty good shot of the tower as well.

I’m hoping to come back and visit soon. Do some proper hikes, and maybe come from the North Carolina side so I can also cross off visiting that state.

-Evilmanta