Great Smokey Mountains

Great Smokey Mountain National Park

April 5, 2009

I visited the Great Smokey Mountains National Park on a Saturday, the last full day of my trip. I had never been before and, after all of the history I'd already seen and absorbed on the trip thus far, my thought process in planning the trip was to "treat" myself to a pretty place where I could just enjoy myself. Not to say there wasn't any history at the Park - there were many historical buildings throughout. But that was not why I came.

I left Cherokee, North Carolina bright and early and took a short drive up the road to the Park. I could not have planned this better - in fact I did plan it but little did I know just how close my hotel in Cherokee was to the Park. A mile and a half at most. I left the hotel and very quickly was in the Park. Like most of the National Park Service sites I visited on my trip, there was no entrance fee. I stopped at the eastern entrance and visited the Oconaluftee Visitor's Center located there (I'd visit the other Visitor's Centers located on the western side of the Park later in the day).

It was so early I really didn't know what to do with myself. Luckily, there was a path next to the Visitor's Center where you could walk next to the Oconaluftee River and the Mountain Farm Museum to walk through. I spent a little time there and then hopped back in my trusty rental car for the drive through the Park. There is only one road that goes through the Park, and a scenic road it is.

As I drove along the road, I stopped frequently. Many stops were at pullouts along the road, where I would get out of the car and take pictures. Lots of pictures. Most of the pictures had something to do with water. At this point it was downright cold, but sunny. As I gained elevation on my way through the Park up to Newfound Gap, it seemed to get colder.

My goal for this part of the trip was Clingman's Dome.

Clingman's Dome is reached via a turnoff from the park road. I believe you travel about 7-8 miles to a parking area, which was more than 1/2 full when I got there. It was darn windy and darn cold - elevation if about 6600 feet above sea level. Still sunny, though. I parked and walked up the intermittently steep 1/2-mile climb from the parking area to the top of the Dome. The paved path was a bit treacherous - being as it was so cold ice had formed here and there. You had to really watch you step and take great care not to slip.

At the top of the path, there is a tower of sorts. You walk up a ramp that does this sweeping 360-degree climb up to the tower - interesting in a I've-never-seen-anything-like-this-before kind of way. But I tell you, you could really feel the chilly wind up here in the tower. The branches of the trees from the parking area up to the tower were coated with ice. The sun shining on the ice gave the whole area a kind of surreal look. However, the views from the tower were magnificent.

View from Clingman's Dome (the white on the trees is the ice)

After returned to the parking area and admiring the sheets of ice on the rocks which surrounded it, I drove back out to the park road and over to lookout at Newfound Gap. The parking area here was crowded (which would become a theme for the remainder of the day). It was somewhere around here that I crossed the state line between North Carolina and Tennessee. I didn't stay long at the overlook but drove down into Tennessee. My next goal was a picnic area (the name which escapes me) a few miles away.

Apparently, that was the goal of many other people as well as there was little parking available when I arrived. I parked next to the restrooms, probably in a place I was not supposed to park, got my lunch, and headed across the picnic area to the Little Pigeon River, which tumbled merrily alongside the picnic area. I made myself comfortable on a large rock and enjoyed my feast.

Little Pigeon River

I stopped at the Sugarlands Visitor's Center when I finally completed my crossing of the Park, only about 5 hours after I started my journey. And then I was off to my next destination, Grotto Falls. To reach Grotto Falls, you have to exit the Park at the western entrance, drive through the city of Gatlinburg, and then re-enter the Park on the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. On the map, this looks to be about 2-3 miles. This took about 1 hour. I am sure the people of Gatlinburg are very nice, but I have never been in a more crowded city where it took forever (forever being about 45 minutes) to drive 2 miles. Yes, I know it was a sunny and now warm afternoon in the Spring in Tennessee but....come one people! 2 miles in 45 minutes is ridiculous! There were people and cars everywhere! My exasperation was so much that I have no plans to ever stop and enjoy Gatlinburg.

I finally arrived at Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail to discover it was a 6-mile one-way loop through the a small section of the Park. Here is my other pet peeve about my visit to the Park - get a bunch of people on a one-way road (both here and at Cade's Cove, which I would visit later) and they don't know how where the gas pedal is. People - you do not have to go 1-5 miles an hour on those roads! The roads were wide enough and not all the twisty!

Eventually (it seemed like a very long time later) I reached the trail head/parking area for Grotto Falls. Again, a very popular place - there was limited parking available and that was full. I somehow got lucky and got one of those spaces. Most people had to park along the one-way road down from the trail head.

Grotto Falls is about a 4 and 1/2 mile hike roundtrip. It is all uphill to the Falls, which means it is all downhill on the way back. I didn't find the trail difficult either coming or goind, but my foot balked throughout the hike; for those not up to speed on my foot issues this trip, I'd torn a tendon in my right foot which wouldn't be diagnosed for another month. Throughout the hike, waves of pain would go through my foot, causing me to stop several times until it passed.

I eventually reached the Falls to find a lot of people. Again, sunny, somewhat warm spring Saturday so I can understand why. And the Park is the most frequently visited Park in the United States. People were getting out and about after winter. I just wished they'd chosen to do it another time.

The path to Grotto Falls and beyond goes up alongside the stream created by the Falls and then goes behind the Falls themselves to cross over to the other side of the stream. Yes, you can stand behind the Falls and take pictures of the other side of water! It is kind of cool, however. And damp.

After going behind the Falls and taking my requisite pictures, I headed back down the trail and to the car. And left the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail behind. I will say it is a very pretty drive, and you can pull over at the many pullouts to take pictures. Or, if people had a clue (which only one car did) to let faster drivers pass you.

It was back to Gatlinburg and another hour or so to get through the city and back into the Park. 2 miles and it takes an hour. (As I sit here writing this, I am literally shaking my head and sighing very heavily. It was just unbelievable.)

Since it was still only mid-afternoon at this point, I decided to visit Cade's Code. It is located about 30 miles/minutes away from the western entrance to the Park at the Sugarlands Visitor's Center so I drove over there. Cade's Cove is one of those historical places in the Park - the entire area contains may old/restored buildings which can visit along the scenic one-way drive. It seemed as if everyone in the Park decided to visit at the same time as I did, so the entire trip (above 15-20 miles maybe) took 2-3 hours to complete. Again with the extremely slow driving. I stopped at the Cade's Cove Visitor's Center and walked around the restored buildings which were at the same site, more to get out of the car and calm down at this point.

Cable Mill, Cade's Cove

I did stop frequently because who knows when I will ever visit again. I may visit the Park again but I don't think I will be back to this part of it. Finally(!), about 6 p.m., I was set free of the one way road. I was, however, stuck behind a van that decided to drive 5 miles an hour slower the speed limit. And we were going the same way, along US-321. Eventually, the van turned off somewhere along that road and I was on my way to my hotel for the night, which was located in Sevierville.

To cap off a long and frustrating day, it took me about an hour to find the hotel. I got turned around and drove by it a couple of times before I actually figured out where it was. On the plus side, it was across the parking lot from Outback. I decided to treat myself after my long day.

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