Bagpipe player's 'Amazing Grace' at Mt. Leconte on Easter Sunday is a family tradition

If you were hiking in the Smokies on Easter Sunday and you heard bagpipes playing in the background, it wasn't your imagination.

Dustin Hatfield has been playing the bagpipes for about 17 years. One year he decided it would be cool to play the bagpipes at the top of Mt. LeConte in Tennessee's Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and now it has become an Easter tradition.

"For me it's a family thing, it's a day we go up the mountain to remember the people who have helped us get to where we are today, to play in memory of them," Hatfield said.

The hike's popularity has picked up and they have a core group that makes the trip at their own pace up to the summit. This year was their seventh year making the trek. 

"This year there were probably about 30 people on the clifftops, I would say the total group would probably be 60 to 70 people," Hatfield said.

The group traditionally starts at around 7 or 8 a.m and tries to get to the clifftops by noon. This year, their traditional Alum Cave route was inaccessible due to snow so they took the Rainbow Falls trail instead.

Hatfield says the hike is about more than music — it's about unity.

"It brings a lot of people together, even if it's just one day a year, it brings a lot of hikers together."