Little Duck Hawk Ridge (Part 1 of 3)

I’m secretly glad that it’s illegal to hike on the upper end of Little Duck Hawk Ridge near Peregrine Peak on the southern slope of Mount LeConte. The $20,000 fine (yes, a twenty followed by a comma and three zeros) is a bit stout for my budget. I’m glad for two reasons. One is that it protects the nesting peregrine falcons from disturbance by curious humans. That’s the noble, environmentally sensitive reason.

 Little Duck Hawk Ridge (from Inspiration Point on Alum Cave Trail)

The other reason is that Little Duck Hawk Ridge is extraordinarily rocky and narrow, and it scares me. It looks dangerous, which of course means that some of my friends would feel compelled to give it a try, which also means that the peer pressure from them would force me to give it a try, which, to be honest, is something that I’d rather not do. It’s just too rocky and steep, and yes, it intimidates me. I know from past experience that I may see a narrow, rocky ridge and think that a hike along the crest would be awesome. Then we work our way up to the ridgecrest and reality sets in. It’s too much for my psyche to handle. My partners tightrope their way along the narrow spine while I crawl on all fours like a kitten, or I simply give up and find a safer route. And, let the record show, there isn’t always a safer route. Sometimes the only option is to give up and go back where we came from, but no one, including me, wants to be the guy who ruined everyone’s trip by getting scared and quitting. I’ve never quite done that, but Little Duck Hawk could easily have been my first. Among my hiking friends, I’ll continue to pretend that I resent the government’s $20,000 threat, but deep in the secret places of my soul, I’m rejoicing that Uncle Sam has let me off the hook.

Little Duck Hawk Ridge (from Alum Cave Trail)

The name “Little Duck Hawk” isn’t the kind of title that strikes awe in the hearts of those who hear it. A name like Devil’s Razor or Deadman’s Wall would be appropriately fierce names, but, as it happens, Duck Hawk is also fitting because “duck hawk” is another name for a peregrine falcon.

These birds nested on this narrow ridge for many years (probably centuries or millennia) but disappeared sometime during the 1940s or 50s. According to Margaret Brown in The Wild East, a falcon nest on Little Duck Hawk Ridge was one of the last falcon nests in the eastern US as widespread human encroachment and the use of DDT as an insecticide nearly eliminated them from North America. During the 1970s several programs were working to save the falcons from extinction, and in 1984 several females were released on Greenbrier Pinnacle, and several more were released in the park over the next few years. None of these birds nested and bred in the park until 1997, when a nest with three falcon chicks was sighted in June on Little Duck Hawk Ridge. The falcons had returned from the brink of extinction, and today they continue to live and breed there.

The easiest way to see this rare species is to walk two miles up Alum Cave Trail to a rocky observation spot called Inspiration Point. There’s no sign at this spot, but it’s not hard to recognize. The first 1.5 miles of Alum Cave Trail leads to Arch Rock where the trail tunnels through a large rock on a set of rock stairs. About five minutes after Arch Rock, the trail crosses a modest creek called Styx Branch on a small, log footbridge. From this footbridge, the trail begins ascending away from the river for about 15 to 20 minutes at which point the trail makes a sharp right turn at Inspiration Point where there’s a small, open, rocky area surrounded by rhododendron and mountain laurel and providing nearly 360 degree views of Anakeesta Ridge, Sugarland Mountain, the Chimneys, and the entire upper Sugarlands valley. This spot gives you a lot of bang for your buck because the views are worth a lot more than the hour you’ve invested to walk here. It’s a great view of the Tennessee heart of the park.

As you stand at Inspiration Point looking out across the valley, directly to your right (west) the closest thing you’ll see is the rocky face of Little Duck Hawk Ridge. (Look closely and you’ll see a couple of holes, or windows, through the spine of the ridge.) Unless you go to a zoo and look at peregrine falcons in a cage, you are now in one of the two best spots for watching these survivors who, with a little help from some caring humans, have managed to survive the holocaust that nearly destroyed their species.

The other great viewing spot – the place where I saw my first peregrine falcons – is Big Duck Hawk Ridge. [To be continued]