FLASHBACK!!!
Tennessee, Part 2
We stayed at two different campgrounds while in the area of Tennessee that is around the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The first was a campground in Wear Valley and the second was Elkmont Campground, inside the National Park. These two locations gave us the ability to do some sight seeing in Pigeon Forge from the first campground and then we were able to explore inside the National Park from the second. This part of Tennessee is a popular and crowded area, and it was even more mobbed because the local schools were on a fall break!
Pigeon Forge
Dollywood
This mountainous portion of the state is where country music star Dolly Parton grew up. She has established a lot of businesses in the Pigeon Forge area, the most famous being the theme park called Dollywood. We weren’t sure what to expect of this park, but decided to check it out. We are glad we did! This is a great park for all ages, very family oriented and fun.
Several stages and an auditorium on site host first class entertainment. One show we saw was Triumphant Quartet, which was about 45 minutes in length. The group performed traditional Gospel, Contemporary Christian, and Original songs. If you enjoy any of the above music genres check out some of their music on You Tube. I really enjoyed their performance of Goodness of God; here is a link.
https://youtu.be/iI6muwwhw0g?si=6DXoLhFIiXZFNXG3
Dollywood was decked out for fall, with pumpkins galore, including the whimsical creations in Hoot Owl Hollow.
We stayed into the evening hours to enjoy the Great Pumpkin LumiNights, which illuminates the evening sky with the whimsical warming glow of over 12,000 pumpkins. This guitar behind Steve played a musical tune while the pumpkin sculpture became a light show, keeping time to the music!
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Black Bears
It was a treat to have a few bear sightings while in the Smoky Mountains. We took a drive along the Roaring Fork Motorway, where bears are often seen along the edge of the road. The presence of Park Rangers and slowed traffic put us on alert while we tried to spot the bears creating the traffic jam! We saw a mama with her two cubs and several single bears foraging along the Motorway.
On one day, as we were hiking along a trail not too far from our campground we came around a bend in the trail to see a black bear foraging along the side of the trail not too far away! That bear was too close for our comfort, but it didn’t seem aware of us or interested in breaking off from eating whatever it had found! That was the end of that hike! We backed off and left the bear happily foraging in peace.
Later as we were driving, a bear crossed the roadway ahead of us, to scurry up the steep cliff on our left. Fortunately we were driving slowly on the narrow winding road and were not in danger of hitting the bear. Sadly many bears and other animals are struck by cars in the National Parks so it’s always good to go slowly and keep on the lookout!
Here are some of the sights we explored in the National Park.
Cades Cove offers a beautiful drive along meadows and through forest with many historical buildings along the way.
Daisy Town
Once a thriving summer community, now only remnants of brick chimneys and a handful of restored houses remind visitors of the era before this National Park was established and families owned summer cottages here.
Little River Trail and Cucumber Gap Trail
These two trails joined together to form a loop of about 4 1/2 miles, bringing us to Daisy Town before returning to the trailhead. The first portion of the trail started out with a nice wide and gentle path between the trees, following the river’s course.
The second portion of the trail was much narrower and mostly uphill. After our earlier bear encounter the narrow trail was a bit nerve wracking, as in some spots our visibility of our surroundings was limited by the trees and low shrubs. Fortunately we did not spot a bear on this trail, but we spotted a snake! However it was not on the trail…it was 20-30 feet up from the ground on the trunk of a tree!
As our time at this beautiful National Park came to an end it was time to head to Georgia. Taking the Newfound Gap Road, (Highway US-441) southeast through the center of the Park we slowly climbed toward the summit where we reached an elevation of 5,049’. The light rain that had been falling through the trees onto our windshield soon turned into snow flurries, the first snowfall of the winter for the Smoky Mountains! The roads beyond in North Carolina greeted us with the most breathtaking fall foliage of our journey. Leaves of bright red, shimmering yellow, glowing orange and deep burgundy surprised us around every bend! It was an interesting collision of seasons! And as we got down to Georgia it felt like summer again!
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