Part of the fun of our trip is being outdoors. Particularly when the weather cooperates.
Up until late yesterday, the weather has been quite nice, so we have been spending a lot of our time outdoors.
Hiking
From our campground just outside of Johnson City, TN, there are a number of hikes in the Bald Mountains which are inside the Cherokee National Forest.
At the recommendation of the campground hosts, we chose the Margarette Falls hike, a 2.6 mile (4.2 km) hike with 623 ft (190 m) of vertical gain.
The first 0.5 mile is an old forest road while the last 0.8 miles are where the climbing begins. Following the creek, the trail ascends quickly up a trail of tree roots and broken rock. Crossing the creek a couple of times: once on an iron bridge, then on a set of strategically placed rocks, the trail ends with the fan shaped falls.
The falls didn’t disappoint. While the falls come from a creek on top of a rock ledge, the vantage point below makes it look like the water is coming from groundwater seeping out of one of the cracks in the wall.
The trail was quiet and we only saw 4 other groups of two along the way, giving us a nice afternoon alone in the woods.
The Great Smoky Mountains
On the other end of the “alone” scale was our trip through the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Perhaps it was because we ventured out on Sunday, but the park was chock full of people.
There are only two main roads in the park; Highway 441 that goes up and over the mountains from Gatlinburg to Cherokee and the Cades Cove Scenic Loop Road, a 25-mile-long road that takes you through a narrow canyon to an area that was settled in the 1800’s, then bought by the government in the 1930s for the park.
Highway 441
Highway 441 is a twisting winding two-lane road over the mountains. It reminded me of highways in BC in the 1960’s with narrow roads and lots of twisting turns up steep slopes. The payoffs are the vistas from the pullout areas.
Our first stop was at Newfound Gap. So named as it was the last major route over the Great Smoky Mountains and also the lowest. It straddles the North Carolina – Tennessee boarder with great views into both states.
At the top of the gap is a parking lot and a lookout called the “Rockefeller Memorial Historic Monument”. Apparently, the Rockefeller Foundation donated $5 million to help complete land acquisitions to create the National Park. The memorial was the site of the dedication of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on September 2, 1940 by President Roosevelt.
Clingman’s Dome
Clingman’s Dome is the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains and has an observation tower, opened in 1960, that allows you to see in all directions from that point.
This is what it is supposed to look like.
And, this is what we saw!
About half a mile from the top, we went into full cloud mode (which actually isn’t all that unusual from what I understand).
From the parking lot at the top of the mountain the observation tower is half a mile up a steep walkway. Fortunately, while lots of people were taking rests along the way, we were able to just drop into a lower gear and chug up the path.
Once we got there, we had to laugh and share a picture of a foggy view from the top of a mountain with the friends we went to Maui with 2 years ago. We have a similar picture of fog from the top of the Haleakalā volcano.
Cades Cove
The last major area of the park is Cades Cove. It is 25 miles from the entrance down a narrow twisting canyon. However, once at the Cove, the area opens up to an 11-mile, one-way, narrow road loop through meadows and aspen dominated forests.
While it was picturesque, we unfortunately got caught in a 7-mile-long bear jam. Apparently, people have never seen bears and because the bears were near the end of the loop, once you are on the loop you can’t get off! So, for almost 2 hours we crawled along as people got out of their cars, took pictures and ogled the bears.
Fortunately, it was a sunny, warm afternoon so we just listened to 3 of the 5 CDs we have in the car.
On our way back to the park entrance the weather began to change and by the time we hit Gatlinburg, which is just inside of the park, the rain was really coming down. As we had our rain coats with us it didn’t bother us to walk a few blocks for a smoked rib dinner.
Once back at the trailer, it was a quick chat with the kids and off to bed.