More Smoky Mountains

Most of the park does not have roads. There is one main east to west highway, but its posted speed varies from 25 to 45 at most, so with the 10 million visiting each year, even this main highway is slow going. The other roadways that do penetrate into the park are generally narrow, one way loops. Because of the distances, the density of the visitors, the posted speeds (25 MPH on one of the loops, 10 MPH on the other), and the likelihood of critter traffic jams (if one car stops to site a critter, you often cannot get around it, you just have to wait until the critter moves on or the car occupants have had enough) the rangers will tell you to allow 3 to 4 hours for each – 1 hour to drive into the park to the start of the loop, 1 to 2 hours to do the loop (depending on the critter activity), and 1 hour to get back from the start of the loop. So you pretty much need to dedicate a day per loop.

We enjoyed the Cades Cove loop very much. Cades Cove was named by early settlers to the area, and there are a number of early 1800’s log homes and church buildings that still are standing in the park. All the churches had small cemeteries attached, and our normal experience of seeing all the days, months and couple of year old kid graves was no different here. What a different time to live in when having the odds of a child of yours ever reaching adulthood was so low.

It pretty much took the advertised time to get around the loop, but with stopping at homes and churches along the way, it was really quite pleasant. It also was the site of our second encounter with a true GSMNP resident – two of them actually. A mama bear and her cub were foraging in the trees on the right side of the road. Traffic came to a complete stop, and as we watched, they emerged from the woods, sauntered across the road, and entered the thick grass on the other side of the road.

It was fun to watch them in the thick grass – they were a bit like Niko when he is in taller grass. He doesn’t just push his way through, the bounds through, leaping up and over sections of the tall stuff. As the mama and cub crossed the field, we saw alternation splashed of black as they leaped and bounded. Every now and then the mama would stand straight up on her hind legs to eat the top of one of the taller plants. The guy from the car next to us was really excited. He was from New York and came to the Smokys every year for the last 16 years for his summer vacation, and in 16 years, this was only the third bear he had seen I guess we are blessed to have had 3 sightings on our first visit!

The Woman was in ecstasy. With her Appalachian Trail obsession in full force, she had learned that the AT crossed pretty much the length of the park along the ridge of the mountain range. At several locations we were able to find the AT and hike a bunch of it. While hiking maybe 10 miles of the Appalachian Trail may not be much in relation to its 2,200 mile length, the Woman simply enjoys taking any opportunity to hike sections that we happen upon. Who knows, after 220 chance visits like this, maybe we will have done the entire AT!

We visited Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountain range. In fact, at 6,643 feet, it holds three records – highest point in the range, highest point in the state of Tennessee, and also the highest point along the length of the Appalachian Trail. To get you a view up above the trees, a 45 foot concrete observation tower was built in 1959 – and it looks every bit just about as old as I am.

The views from the top were grand. The Woman didn’t even whine too much because the guard railings were tall, and not see through, perfect for her. We even got a bonus after venturing up – we were able to hike back to the car along a section of the AT. It appeared that the white blazes that indicated you are squarely on the main trail had been recently refreshed.

With no picnic areas within an hour of us, we just cracked out the folding chairs (we have started carrying two in the Saturn just for occasions like this) and had our picnic lunch overlooking the entire Smoky Mountain Range. Billion dollar views at our lunch stop!

Having explored the Tennessee side of the GSMNP, we plan to move Colectiva over to North Carolina and see what there is to see on that side of the park.

 

Talk to you soon!