Great Smoky Mountain National Park
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| Welcome to the Smokies |
Our family was fortunate enough to travel to Great Smoky Mountain National Park in October 2015. I have loved this park for many years due to the variety of terrain, the number of things to do within the park and the juxtaposition of a wilderness area in heavily inhabited eastern part of the United States.
I can't remember when I first visited the park, but it was probably on a college road trip with a friend. I've made several trips there over the years, primarily to either backpack or fly fish, but this was the first time that I had gone with my family.
The history of the park is fascinating. According to National Park Service's website, this area has been inhabited by men since prehistoric times. Some of the most prominent early inhabitants were the Cherokee Indian tribe. The members of this federally recognized tribe are primarily descendants of the 800 Cherokee tribesmen who avoid removal during the presidency of Andrew Jackson who had announced that it was "the benevolent policy of the Government" to remove all of the Indian tribes beyond white settlements. While the resulting Trail of Tears was hardly benevolent, the Indian Removal Act did force most of the Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi River to relocate to the Indian territories in the modern state of Oklahoma thus opening this area further for white settlement.
The history of the creation of the park is also interesting. After nearly being logged into extinction, many people began a campaign to preserve the park's natural and cultural heritage. This story is succinctly told on the National Park Service's Great Smoky Mountain National Park website.
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| Remiel playing with the fall leaves |
This trip was a short one consisting of only three nights. This is BARELY enough time to do a couple of things, but we were also traveling with our one-year old, Zachary. This would be his first time going camping. The plan was to stay at the Cades Cove Campground as the Cove is a prime area for wildlife viewing which is something that fascinates our seven year-old Remiel. We planned to tour Cades Cove, climb up Clingman's Dome and do a day-trip to Fontana Dam on the North Carolina side.
Day One
We had hoped that our early October trip would coincide with the fall colors, but we were a couple of weeks to early for that. There was some color in the higher elevations, but down in the valleys, it was business as usual in terms of summer color. The weather for the trip turned out to be beautiful - which was a concern as Tennessee had been swamped with rain the week prior. It was mostly sunny each day with high temperatures in 70's and lows in the upper 50's - perfect camping weather.
We arrived at Cades Cove Campground after about a four-hour drive from our home in south-central Tennessee. If you want to stay in this campground, you must make reservations in advance. Our first order of business was to set up the tent and get everything settled in.
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| Belle and the boys at Cades Cove Campground |
After setting up the tent, we decided to make the Cades Cove loop as it was getting later in the afternoon. We were hoping to see a lot of wildlife and, hopefully, some bears. We weren't disappointed.
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| Cades Cove |
The trip around the Cove started off with us spotting a grey fox almost at the start of the loop (unfortunately, our photography skills weren't up to task of capturing him.) We also stopped briefly at one of the old churches that have been preserved in the Cove but again, didn't take any pictures.
At the far end of the loop, near Abrams Creek, the pace slowed down to a crawl. Park Rangers had cordoned off an area where a bear was feeding near the road and were only letting cars through one at a time. When it came our time to drive through, we passed directly underneath the bear which as feeding on nuts in a tree.
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| Close encounter of the bear kind |
We thought that would be the highlight of the loop, but about halfway back to the campground, traffic again came to a screeching halt. When we finally arrived at the bottleneck, a Ranger informed us that a sow and her three cubs were feeding nearby. The sow was on the ground and the three cubs scattered about the tree overhead.
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| Can you find the cubs in the tree? |
The rest of the loop was uneventful and we eventually made it back to the campsite to prepare supper and head to bed.
If you want an unusual experience, try sleeping with a one-year old on his first camping trip. Everything inside the tent was new and unique and Zac just had to experience it all. As we tried to sleep, his excitement was just too much to contain. He would lay his head down for a minute only to pop back up and look around, touch the side of the tent, bounce on the air mattress he shared with his brother of simply roll on top of Remiel as he tried to sleep. Eventually, he got tired and went to sleep, but it was funny watching him wind down.
Day Two
On day two, we decided to head up to Clingman's Dome. While the distance is not far, as the crow flies, the twisty roads in the park meant that it would be a full-day trip. It was a partly cloudy yet sunny day as we set out.
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| A nice morning at the campsite. |
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| Someone's ready for the road. |
Our first stop was the Sugarland Visitor Center outside of Gatlinburg. It's a nice, yet typical national park visitor center with a modest display of stuffed animals that are found in the park in their little museum. We also caught the movie about the founding of the park and its importance. Probably the biggest acquisition here was a companion for Remiel's stuffed buffalo, Mandero. We picked up Mandero at Yellowstone National Park a couple of years ago and he has been a constant travel/sleeping companion for Remiel ever since. While in the gift shop, Remiel decided that Zac needed a companion as well. Surveying the plethora of stuffed toy animals available, he decided on a smaller buffalo. After paying for the little guy, Remiel promptly bestowed the name Rafalo on our newest family member and we sent out for Gatlinburg.
Since we were this close to town, we decided to run to the grocery store and get the makings for a picnic lunch. Gatlinburg has grown significantly since the last time that I was there and I have to say that I believe it is for the worse. It is nothing but an overgrown tourist trap and I couldn't wait to get out.
After departing the rat race that is Gatlinburg, we headed up towards Clingman's Dome. First, we stopped off at Chimney's Picnic Area and had a bite for lunch. This was MUCH better than sitting at a touristy restaurant in Gatlinburg.
Upon finishing our lunch, we headed on up the road again. Almost immediately, we hit a "bear-jam." Traffic slowed to a stop as people desperately tried to get pictures of a sow and her two cubs feeding not 20 feet off the road. As we had enough bear pictures the day before, we patiently waited and made our way through after about a 30 minute delay. Twenty minutes after that, we arrived at the Clingman's Dome parking lot. It was jam-packed with people. The week prior, the mountain had been socked in with rain and clouds and this was one of the first nice days they had seen for a while. Apparently everyone else had the same idea that we did - to go climb Clingman's Dome.
Clingman's Dome is the highest peak in Great Smoky Mountain National Park. It straddles the Tennessee/North Carolina state line and rises 6,643 feet above sea level. There is a half-mile paved path that leads from the parking lot to an observation tower on the peak of the mountain. According to national park literature, despite being paved, the path is not handicapped accessible due to its steepness. I can attest to that. They claim it's a half-mile - I think they lie!
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| Someone it taking the easy way here |
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| Observation tower on the top of Clingman's Dome |
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| Looking to the west - Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge are visible in the distance |
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| Remiel enjoys the view. |
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| Southern view looking towards the Standing Indian mountains in North Carolina |
As you near the top of Clingman's Dome, you see a lot of dead trees. According to the National Park Service's website:
What's killing the trees at Clingmans Dome?
The balsam woolly adelgid (Adelges piceae) is an insect pest that infests and kills stands of Fraser fir (Abies fraseri) in the spruce-fir zone. This fir occurs naturally only in the southern Appalachians and used to be the dominant tree at the highest elevations. The adelgid was introduced on trees imported from Europe, and the fir has little natural defense against it. By injecting the tree with toxins, the adelgid blocks the path of nutrients through the tree. The trees literally starve to death, and thousands of dead snags are all that are left on the highest mountain peaks.
A "cousin" of this insect, the hemlock woolly adelgid, is killing hemlock trees throughout the park. Hemlocks killed by this second type of adelgid are visible along Newfound Gap Road.While there are many benefits to globalization, the introduction of invasive species certainly is not one.
After resting up a bit and taking a ton of pictures it was time to head back down the mountain.
Clingman's Dome is also home to a portion of the Appalachian Trail. The Trail, which runs approximately 2,200 miles from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mt. Katahdin, Maine, sees Clingman's Dome as its highest point.
The trip back to the parking lot is significantly easier than the trip up.
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| The parking lot is that light grey spot on the shoulder of the mountain. |
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| Remiel on the North Carolina side. |
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| Looking off on the North Carolina side, you can see some fall colors beginning to appear. Fontana Lake is visible in the distance. |
By the time we got back to the parking lot, some of us were tuckered out - no matter how much work we actually did.
After piling in the car, we headed back to Cades Cove Campground, cooked supper, made s'mores and settled in for the night.
Day Three
For our last full day in the park, we decided to drive over to Fontana Dam in North Carolina. We packed the making for a picnic lunch and headed out. Our route took us out of the park at Townsend, TN and over the Foothills Parkway. Taking this route would lead us down to U.S. Highway 129 and along the shore of Chilhowee Lake.
The lake was formed in 1955 when ALCOA built the Chilhowee Dam on the Little Tennessee River. The route would lead us on the Deals Gap road into Fontana Village. The trip started out nice. There are pullouts along Foothills Parkway which offer views to both east (toward Great Smoky Mountain National Park) and west.
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| Remiel looks west off a Foothills Parkway overlook. |
There is a webcam set up at Looking Rock on the Foothills Parkway which looks back towards Great Smoky Mountain National Park. You can find the webcam here.
After getting down to Chilhowee Lake, we headed towards Deal's Gap. I knew this road was curvy, but I had forgotten how curvy it truly is. Since the last time I've been here (more than 15 years) it has become a destination for motorcycles and sports cars and has been named the Tail of the Dragon. They say there is 318 curves in 11 miles, which sounds like a lot of fun - unless you have someone in the vehicle who is prone to carsickness. We, unfortunately, have such a person. So instead of a fun trip, it became a stop and go affair, in order that some puking could take place. In spite of that, there are some very pretty overlooks along the route.
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| Calderwood Lake and Dam |
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| Overlooking Calderwood Lake and Dam |
Eventually, we made it to Fontana Dam and toured the visitor center and the road on the dam. Fontana Dam is the tallest concrete dam east of the Mississippi River. It was constructed in the 1940's as a TVA project to help supply power for the war effort.
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| From the top of the dam looking towards the power house. |
From the top of the dam you have a great view of the southern portion of Great Smoky National Park.
The road was closed due to repairs/construction while we were there, so everyone was able to get out and stretch out legs a bit.
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| Belle and Zac cruise the dam. |
After the dam tour (pun intended), we headed up to the picnic area overlooking the lake to have lunch. It was very quiet and peaceful here. Fontana Dam is also a famous stop along the Appalachian Trail. The shelter here, known as the Fontana Hilton, is one of the nicer ones on the trail. When you include the fact that there are free hot showers available for hikers at the dam, you can see why this is one of the favorite places to spend the night.
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| Fontana Shelter over looking Fontana Lake |
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| Fontana Hilton |
After lunch, rather than head back over the Tail of the Dragon to return to Cades Cove, we choose to drive through Cherokee, NC and back over the top of the park along the Newfound Gap Road.
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| Tunnel on the main road through the park |
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| View from an overlook on the North Carolina side. |
Eventually, we made it back to camp for supper and more s'mores. The next morning, we rose, made breakfast, packed up our gear and headed back home. It was an enjoyable three-day trip.
I will return to Great Smoky National Park again. I want to do some more fly fishing in the streams there and would like to do the bicycle tour of Cades Cove. That will have to wait until the boys are a little older.
Thanks for reading this. I hope you enjoyed the narrative.
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