Adventures in the South East, #11

FLASHBACK!!!

Oops! We just discovered that we had not finished and uploaded one of our posts! So here is an out of order episode…

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!

So as you know, this blog post of Tennessee is out of order and you probably already read about our Adventures on the Road in Georgia and Florida. We are heading west toward home and will soon post about what we explored in Mississippi.

Adventures in the South East, #13

Florida, the Sunshine State

Heading south from the Atlanta area we reached the Florida panhandle. Our campsite at Williams Landing County Park overlooked a lake and while setting up our trailer we were greeted with a fiery sunset, which we enjoyed from a dock near our site.

Wakulla Springs

Surrounded by ancient Cyprus swampland, this is one of the largest and deepest freshwater springs in the world! 500,000 gallons of water per minute flow out of a cave over 100 feet below the surface. Our boat tour guide put that into perspective for us. That is enough water to fill an Olympic size swimming pool in 45 seconds! The outflow of water feeds 9 miles of river which empties in the gulf. Our boat tour took us one mile downstream and back. The wetlands and the course of the river beyond that, are protected in their undisturbed natural state. Only a few scientists a year are allowed further downstream to take a census of the wildlife.

Talk about wildlife! We saw several Manatee feeding in the clear shallows and lots of Gators resting along the banks as we passed by. A wide variety of birds such as Anhinga, White Ibis, Cormorants, Blue Heron, Great White Egret, Kingfishers, and various ducks were also spotted along the shoreline.

Wakulla Springs was the film location of the classic movies, Tarzan (1932) and The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)!

While the water was cool and clear, if you saw the gators in the shore or watched one of these horror movies I don’t think you would want to go in the water! But for the brave, a swimming area with a two story high dive platform is a popular draw for crowds of families during the heat of summer. A 1930’s Lodge still offers food and draws overnight guests to this iconic part of the Florida wetlands. The Lobby’s hand painted beamed ceiling was quite the feature! We enjoyed lunch in the dining room with a view of the springs. 

Wakulla Springs was a hidden gem and we are grateful that our camp host recommended visiting the springs. We had not heard anything about it in our research of “what to see and do” in this area. It pays to talk to the locals!

Heading on to the gulf and St. Mark’s Lighthouse we stopped at a hiking area. From an observation deck we saw a Bald Eagle soaring high overhead, while a flock of about a dozen Roseate Spoonbills flew over the marshland to perch in a distant tree. Because the tree had already dropped its leaves, the light pink birds looked like ornaments on the bare branches.

Located where the Apalachicola National Forest meets the Gulf shore, the St. Marks Lighthouse is the second oldest light station in Florida. We struck up a conversation with a couple from Switzerland who vacation in the USA each year. We enjoyed talking about all the national parks we each had visited! We were amazed at how well they knew our country.

Alabama, the Heart of Dixie

Disclaimer: we only saw Alabama from the road- no exploring the state!

From our campground near Tallahassee, we drove west across the Florida Panhandle and crossed the lower portion of Alabama on the I10 Freeway. At Spanish Fort we made an overnight stop at a Cracker Barrel. The next day we continued west to the Mobile Bay. A really long bridge took us across the Mobile River, with the Delta on our right and the Gulf on our left. This brought us to Mobile, which we only viewed from the Freeway.

We soon crossed into Mississippi, so next time you can enjoy our Adventures on the Road as we explore the quaint “Hometown” of Laurel.

As you read this episode of our blog, I’m sure you noticed that our photographer was captivated with landscape and wildlife photography in Florida. Maybe she will remember to put us “in the picture” next week!

We are so thankful that we have been safe in all our driving adventures while exploring this amazing country we live in! Each area has given us spectacular scenery, local history, and amazing museums to appreciate. We are also thankful that we have friends and family following our blog and praying for us. We are praying for all of you as well!