Wilderness Wandering

October 20,2024 

This park is big and it is beautiful, and CROWDED!

We started the day with a 90 minute drive to the south entrance of Great Smoky Mountains NP. 

We drove straight to the Visitor Center and stamped the passport. A wonderful Ranger showed us which sections of the park were still closed after Hurricane Helene. Basically the eastern third of the park is currently closed including The Blue Ridge Parkway. 

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is 521,621 acres. It straddles the Smoky Mountains on the Tennessee- North Carolina border. It’s less than a days drive from 1/3 of the population of the U.S. While we were there, it felt like 1/3 of the U.S. population was there with us! October is their busiest month. We arrived on a Sunday and the roads were packed. 

The Ranger suggested we spend the day on the quieter North Carolina side of the park, which was good advice.

We went to Clingman’s Dome. Clingman’s Dome Trail .5 miles, leads to the highest point in the park. There was snow along the road as we drove up.  The views were excellent. The steep walk up a paved slope reminded us of one of the hikes we did in Shark Valley in The Everglades. 

From the same parking lot, we did Andrew’s Bald, a 3.5 mile moderate hike. This trail is also part of The Appalachian Trail.  They had interesting board walks. They were mainly 6” wide boards about 6” off the ground. It felt like we were on a balance beam. 

On the way back down, we made a short stop at Mingus Mill, a preserved corn grist mill. Traffic was backed up forever on our way out of the park. When we finally reached the area of the jam, we learned the reason for the traffic stoppage was there were elk on the road blocking traffic. A Ranger arrived and blasted an air horn to get them to move. 

The national park campgrounds were full. The Ranger had told us there were many public campgrounds in Cherokee, the town nearest to the south entrance. I called and the first place had availability. We camped at Bradley’s Campground and Cabins on the Oconaluftee River in Cherokee. Our site backed to the river. We loved the sound of the water. 

Calypso turned 30,000 miles today. 

October 21

We began the day at an awfully early hour – 5:30 AM. We had to get to the Alum Cave Trail by 6:30 AM according to the Ranger. The lot fills very early. We arrived at 6:15 AM and parked without trouble. Then we took a nap until 7:30, sunrise! We set out for the Alum Cave Trailhead. The hike is a 4.6 mile strenuous out and back. There were some beautiful features to the hike, and some gorgeous scenery. If we had continued another 2.7 miles straight up, we would have arrived at Mount Le Conte, the site of the Le Conte Lodge. Le Conte Lodge is a rustic lodge, no electricity, etc. that can only be hiked to. They have llamas that carry food and clean linens in weekly. We may have to get a reservation there in the future. 

Back at the parking lot, we reviewed our next options. I wanted to do one more hike in the area, and there was also a drive that looked good. We decided to drive to the trailhead and if there was a parking spot, we would do the hike and if not, we would go do the drive. 

There was a parking spot, so we did the Chimney Tops hike, labeled as strenuous, but other than a lot of stairs, wasn’t too bad. 4.0 miles round trip, pretty views. We met a really nice young couple from a suburb of Madison and had a fun chat!

When we returned to the van, we were famished! 

After lunch, we drove to the north entrance of the park and stopped at The Sugarland VC. We took care of some business and looked at the park film and displays. We did one last “hike” for the day – The Cataract Falls Trail .7 miles to a sweet waterfall. After that, we drove to our campsite in the popular Elkmont campground. It was very pretty with very tall trees, and a river running through the campground. We had a great dinner and campfire. 

October 22

We didn’t get up too early this morning. We began the day with an easy 2.6 mile hike to Laurel Falls. The sun was filtering through the trees and it was just gorgeous. Tim sang “Here comes the sun,” and the stranger we were passing coming the other way chimed in “Doo doo doo doo”. It made us smile! The falls were very pretty!

Next we drove to Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. This is a nature drive. Most of the 8 mile route is one way, as it is a twisty, windy road. We loved the drive. Thank you Vicki for the recommendation! When we arrived it wasn’t too crowded. We had to leave the park and drive through the edge of Gatlinburg to reach the route.  It was busy. 

About 2/3 through the drive we wanted to do the Grotto Falls hike – medium 2.8 miles. We were very lucky to find a parking spot. This was my favorite hike of the day. You can walk behind the falls. We had several great conversations along the trail. We were eating lunch in the van. A young woman asked if we could pull forward a foot, so her family could park behind us. We said sure. Then she noticed Tim’s Wisconsin hat. It turns out that they lived less than an hour from us. Tim gave them one of our Spotted Cow beers and the guy gave us a big smile and put it in his cooler. 

We finished the beautiful drive and went into Gatlinburg to get ice. Big mistake. It was a huge traffic mess in the middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday. I can’t imagine what it’s like in the peak of  the summer. 

We escaped and drove out to our campsite and chilled around the campfire. 

Then we got back in the car about 6 PM to do the 11 mile Cade’s Cove Drive. We met a guy on a Lynskey bike who had crossed the country on the bike four times. His bike had more than 100,000 miles on it. He shared with us that his wife had been killed on one of those trips crossing the country with him.  In spite of that, he remained an avid cyclist.  Sunrise and sunset are the best wildlife viewing times. There was a long line for that too. It took an hour and a half to do the 11 mile loop. People were stopping to take pictures of deer in the field. We did see one bear though! 

October 23

Our plan for today was to get up early and be at Cade’s Cove for sunrise to do the drive and hike Abram’s Falls easy 5.4 miles and  leave the park after that.  We got up in the dark and drove to the route. There was already a long line of people at 7:00 AM. Sunrise wasn’t even for 40 minutes! A ranger opened the gate at 7:45 and the slow procession began. The views of the country were gorgeous with a thin mist rising over the landscape.

We made it to the trailhead and were the first ones on the trail for the morning. We were a bit anxious to get out of the park, so we hustled along the trail.  We did the 5.4 mile hike in 1:40!

Unfortunately, we didn’t see any bears. We did see a beautiful river, with beautiful foliage and a wonderful waterfall. Once back in the van, we finished the loop and exited the park. We were bound for Chattanooga to see some friends from IL who retired to TN a few years ago and Tim had tours set up at titanium bicycle manufacturers Lynskey and Lightspeed. What remained to be seen, was whether we would have to make room for a new bike or two in the van. 😊

As we left the park after fighting horrible traffic for the past three days, Tim vowed that we will never return. I’ll have to give him a few months to recover before I work on him to go back. I know he wants to ride his bike here!