Kuwohi: the day our boys stood on the highest point in Tennessee

Our boys have stood at the edge of a lot of beautiful places for kids their age, and they have the Junior Ranger badges to prove it. But when I told our seven-year-old we were driving to the very top of Tennessee, he asked, completely seriously, whether we would need oxygen.

We did not. But we did need jackets. We left the house in shorts on a warm morning and stepped out at the summit parking lot into a cold wind. Up here it can run 10 to 20 degrees cooler than the valley. Our little one put his hood up and refused to take it off for the rest of the day.

A new old name

In September 2024 the mountain officially took back its Cherokee name, Kuwohi, which means "mulberry place." For over a century it was called Clingmans Dome, and you will still see that name on older maps and signs. At 6,643 feet it is the highest point in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the highest point in Tennessee, and the highest point on the entire Appalachian Trail.

The walk to the tower

From the parking lot, a paved path climbs half a mile to the observation tower. It is short, but it is steep, the kind of steep where you stop to "look at the view" every few minutes. My husband carried our three-year-old on his shoulders for most of it. Our seven-year-old raced ahead, then waited at every bench for us like a tiny tour guide.

At the top, a concrete ramp spirals up to the viewing platform. We could see about forty miles that day, with clouds drifting through the valleys below us. Our oldest said it looked like the mountains were breathing. I wrote that down on my phone, right next to a work email I no longer had to answer.

Standing above the clouds with my boys, I thanked God, quietly, for the courage it took to change our life.

Getting there

Kuwohi Road is a 7-mile spur off Newfound Gap Road, the main road across the park. The drive is half the fun, climbing from leafy hardwoods into dark spruce and fir, the kind of forest you would expect much farther north. My husband, who spent years in Michigan, said it smelled exactly like the North Woods. The road usually closes from December to late March, depending on weather.