While we had been here
before, the Woman always wanted to come back in the fall in order to see the
colors. It appears because of the unusually warm weather that we might be a bit
early for this year, but we will make the best of our time here. How can any
time in the Great Smoky Mountains be bad!
It appears that we will
get a chance to see first hand how this area was named. The weather forecast
says to prepare ourselves for rain pretty much every day, even if only for part
of the day. We wasted no time in driving to the center of the Park, on the way
to its highest elevation at Clingman Dome. It was exceedingly clear to us just
looking around how the Mountain got its name.
Since it wasn’t supposed
to rain until the afternoon, we headed out on a hike somewhat under 3 miles
that took us to Laurel Falls. While we got dripped on, we’re pretty sure that
it was water dripping from the trees above us and not actual rain. The falls
was pleasant and the hike as well. Since it started raining almost as soon as
we got back to the car, we decided to head into town and see Joker. If there
was any place in the US that might be safe to go into a dark movie theater to
see Joker, we figured that Pidgeon Falls Tennessee at a theater right next to
Dollywood would probably be it.
The Woman wanted to seek
out the Appalachian Trail which passes through the Park in several areas. We
headed out to Clingman Dome, the highest point within the Park. It turns out
that it is also the highest point on the Appalachian Trail at 6,643 feet. The AT
runs just past the base of the overlook tower, so we hiked up to the tower from
our car, but then hiked back to our car, clicking off another mile and a half
of the AT – bonus!
We also sought out the
AT at Newfound Gap. We clicked off another 2 miles here – the AT actually
crosses a popular overlook and parking lot. We managed to find where the AT dives
into the trees on both ends of the parking area. Although the Trail gained a
lot of elevation going one way, or losing a lot in the other direction, we
still plunged ahead, deciding to spend our time on the section that went up first.
Interestingly, the AT
manages to cross the border between Tennessee and North Carolina here. In fact,
the border runs smack dab through the center of the overlook parking lot. We
both straddled the line, having one leg in Tennessee and the other in North
Carolina. What tourists!
Talk to you soon.
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