Smokies water temp question

“My trip to Cades Cove last weekend has me scheming on a way to get up there again with the family. The main thing we did was swim. At what point does it get too cold? I know that it depends on my tolerance to cold, but we're really talking about how cold my 4 yo can take it. I guess what I'm really asking is when do you start to see a significant drops in water temp? Is the water in mid Sept much colder than mid August?

Thanks.”

“when ice freezes on the wet suit.”

“A lot depends upon the weather. The rain in the mountains is usually cold. When it rains, the creeks rise and the water flows faster and colder. Without rain, the creeks drop and the water flows slower and warmer, a little warmer. The slower moving water has longer to get warmed by the earth and the sun before it gets down to the swimming areas. Then enters the seasonal aspects. In general the water does not get warmed as much in the winter as in the summer. So just stick your toes in there and see if you want to swim. The colder the water, the less time you will want to spend in it.”

“early November is still warm enough to swim in the lake here. and the end of June in Red Creek (Dolly Sods) was nice & refreshing.”

“What I'm driving at is that trips with the kids have mostly been spent in the water. Because of the temp diff, especially at eleveation, I'm afraid I'm setting myself up for problems.

OTOH, we had assumed next year would be the time to hike somewhere like Abrams. My son will be 5 in Feb and might be strong enough to hike it this fall. I can carry my daugher. She'll be 3 in Nov. I have a baby carrier.

It looks like average temps in Townsend are 5* cooler from mid Aug to mid Sept.”

“yep. mine swim practically until snow falls. i just make sure they have warm stuff to put on after.
if its really cold, the kids will just wade in the shallow water.”

“just be sure to watch them and pull them out when they start turning blue.”

“Heck, my son was blue last weekend.”