Above: The Silers Bald trail shelter on the Appalachian Trail about 5 miles west of Clingmans Dome. This is one of the most pleasant trail shelters in the Great Smokies. It's clean and dry (or at least it was when I was there in early May of 2005. It's a vast improvement over the old style of shelter that once stood on this spot. It helps that the shelter is located at some distance from the trailhead, and especially that horses aren't allowed on this stretch of the Appalachian Trail. On this trip, miles of the main ridge of the Great Smokies were carpeted in a white drift of spring beauties, as seen in the photo below, on a stretch of the AT between Silers Bald and Miry Ridge. From one point on the trail as I neared Miry Ridge, it looked as though a light snow had fallen on the slopes of Miry Ridge, due to the white carpet of flowers that spread out for miles along the crest of the ridge.