Smith Mountain Fire Tower — Attraction in Alexander City

It's a short hike to the tower, but it's fairly inclined in places (I would not describe it as steep). You may also drive to the tower. The tower itself has a lot of steps with 360-degree views. There are placards with information including points of interest within your view, history, plant life, animal life, etc, at the base of the tower and up the tower as well. The lake views are stunning from many points along the trail. Beautiful flora and fauna! It is a good family outing suitable for young children too. Some may not want or need to climb the tower stairs. The tower has open stairs with metal fencing serving as walls. The top level is open with half-height walls for viewing and a roof. The limit is 10 people at a time, but even that would be very crowded. Take a picnic and some water and enjoy the plateau area around the tower. Plan to carry everything back as there are no trash receptacles or facilities up there. It's great exercise and very...

Great hike and beautiful views. You can climb the tower and there is cell signal at the top. We had an issue with a bear that ripped into a tent and but I to a water bottle and filter leaving the backpacker with no way to provide and store water on his way down. We did scare away the bear, but this is a part of hiking in the outdoors and places as labeled as having bears, it happens. If you can deal with that, please do this hike and camp it, climbing the tower and view of seeing the sunset and sunrise from it are awesome....and, say you got your tent ripped by a bear, you could always climb up in the tower and sleep and call your friends to come rescue you....I chose a fire in a fire ring and my tent near it and it worked. Wash your tents and gear periodically so you don't smell tasty and don't bring strong scented food is...

This is one of my favorite hikes. For the really young kids who you don't trust on a trail there's an actual decommissioned road that you can walk up that's really easy to get to the top and back. The hike is on the easy side but I labeled it as moderate since there are many places where the path is rather narrow and slippery and I've had some of my kids slide ungracefully from one point to another. This offers the best for you in the area and I've seen many people walking dogs, bird-washing or just enjoying nature as they hike. There are multiple trails if you want to go down near the water line but if you want to do the trail it's just for the tower it can be done unless than an hour to get there, and less than an hour back and great place...