The Double Springs Gap trail shelter on the Appalachian trail, just two and a half miles west of Clingmans Dome, gets some pretty heavy use. It's the old-style shelter, with chain link fencing 'protecting' the inhabitants. I've never been a fan of the shelters, even though they do serve a valuable purpose in the Smokies by concentrating the impact from the hordes of hikers and horseback riders that use them to one small area. As a rule, especially with the old-style construction, they're cold, damp, often littered, and nearly always overrun with rodents that have been attracted to the easy source of food. This shelter gets even more use than some of the others in the Park, due to the short distance that it stands from the trailhead at Clingmans Dome. Shelters such as Double Springs Gap, Ice Water Springs, and the Davenport Gap shelters often attract throngs of people that are more interested in finding a party location than they are in enjoying the backcountry of the Smokies.

Double Springs Gap has a pretty good spring on each side of the Gap, hence the name. On this day, the one on the south side had a large pile of coyote crap placed neatly on a rock right in the middle of the spring on the south side of the trail. Despite the heavy use, the Gap is a beautiful little spot on the AT. In mid-May, it was carpeted with a blanket of spring beauties and trout lilies, as shown in the photo below.