CLINGMAN'S DOME REVISIT
Seems like it's always "smoky" up here...

This is # 2 of 4 recent hp returns for fine-tuning sake. The goal of this TN visit was to discover a concealed marker that was rumored to exist and most accurately identify the highest natural point: the top of the wheel-chair accessible tower is NOT that.

The rumor-marker was said to be located at the base of the tower and inside a door in the pedestal. We arrived there in the mist to discover...no door. Somewhat discouraged, we squirreled around a bit and did locate a door, but underneath the ramp abutment, not ordinarily visible. The steel door was actually wide open and led into a room that tapered darkly to zero.

Without a flashlight, we groped blindly in this confined space, finally deciding there was no brass disk in here, anyway. (Sour grapes?). Our GSMNP Clingman's Dome brochure did state that there was a marker "nearby." There are, according to the NGS Datasheet Point Radius Form web site, 2 marks near the parking lot - a survey disk and a horiz cont disk - not what we had in mind. The datasheet says the "mark" on summit is the tower, i.e., the center of the tower.