Gatlinburg sucks! The
National Park is awesome, but from where we are parked, we have to go through
Gatlinburg to get in. Although the population of Gatlinburg is around 4,000,
there is only really one road through town, so every time we set out to see
anything in the Park, it’s at least a half hour just to get through town, then
at least another half hour to get anywhere in the Park. Again, Gatlinburg
sucks!
We have had a blast
here, mostly hiking a couple of trails each day. We hiked some on top of the
ridge, in the haze of the “Smoke” that the mountains are known for. We hiked
along the Little River logging over 5 miles, a respectable hike for us. We were
hoping to see some elk – we had heard the elk in the Park were rutting, and we
listened intently for that magical bugling. However, we had to settle on some
deer instead – bummer!
We headed into Cades
Cove to take another shot at some elk. Once there, we headed out on the 11-mile
scenic loop with our fingers crossed. Sadly, the crowds left the traffic on the
loop traveling at under 10 MPH, and often less than half that. Not relishing
over 2 hours just to make the 11-mile loop, we bailed out onto Rich Mountain
Road, a gravel road that, while still a bit slow, was not nearly as slow at the
scenic loop with all its traffic. Bonus! About half way up to the paved road
that descends the other slope of Rich Mountain, we spotted this momma bear blocking
our way to her two cubs!
Did I happen to mention
Gatlinburg sucks? We will be continuing on south tomorrow.
Talk to you soon.
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