Mount Le Conte, Mountain summit in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, United States
Mount Le Conte rises to 6,593 feet and features four distinct subpeaks—West Point, High Top, Cliff Tops, and Myrtle Point—that together form a sprawling ridgeline with multiple viewpoints. These four summits create different vantage points across an expansive plateau where hikers can wander.
The mountain was named after one of two brothers involved in early surveys, though which one remains historically unclear and debated among researchers. The naming reflects the region's early period of exploration and scientific measurement in the 1800s.
LeConte Lodge, built in 1925, offers visitors a rare experience of staying in the mountains without electricity, using kerosene lanterns and gathering for meals together. The place represents a bygone way of traveling that draws people seeking connection with others and the land.
Five different trails reach the summit, each with varying length and difficulty to match different experience levels and time available. The Alum Cave Trail offers the shortest route, while others provide longer and more demanding hikes.
The mountain rises with the steepest vertical relief east of the Rocky Mountains, climbing roughly 5,300 feet from its base near Gatlinburg. This extreme elevation gain within a relatively short horizontal distance makes it one of the most dramatic ascents in the eastern United States.
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