Tennessee Smoky Mountains

We left Mt. Airy (Mayberry), NC on Monday, Oct 20^th.  We stopped at the Tennessee Visitor Centre just across the state line and Tawny decided to go under the fence into a neighbouring field.  Unfortunately, her harness came off (!) and there was barbed wire on top of the fence!!  It took us over ½ hr to get her back, with John hiking it over the barbed wire, shielded with work gloves and hiking boots and a piece of foam to protect his hoo-haw.  But we didn’t lose her (or his hoo-haw)!  That’s a good day...

The scenery on the east side of Tennessee is very different.  More rural/agricultural.  I saw the biggest pumpkin field ever!!!  Not a great picture, but you get the idea... it went on for about 3 hills.

See all the orange dots??  Those are pumpkins!!

We got to Baileyton, TN about 5:30 and got set up and got the cats out.  There is a driving range right beside the campground, and that was the only place big enough to get the cats out in.  The campground is pretty full and zoo-y, and so we herded the kitties onto the driving range, which is empty.  There are grapevines, but they have mushrooms growing around them, so I’m thinking they are not good producing vines.

"C'mon Tawny - there's WOODS over here!!" says Sammy

John, hiking the cats back from their adventure up the hill.

Tuesday, Oct 21^st we took the cats out again for another jaunt thru the driving range, then we packed them up and headed out. We stopped at Sevierville (pronounced “severe-ville”) which is Dolly Parton’s hometown. We expected down-home, small town, wooden cabins with “coat of many colours” kind of mentality. We were wrong... the whole area is totally developed with tons of blinky lights and big buildings.  It looks like Las Vegas in the 1980’s.  

There is “Dollywood”, “Dollywood Splash Park” and some kind of a dinner theatre featuring live horses that Dolly sponsors, along with COUNTLESS other dinner theatres, casino-looking-things, amusement parks complete with ferris wheels, reptile museums... I’m sure you get the idea.  So different than what we thought.

We got the trailer parked and John & I took off in the truck – to tour the Smoky Mountain area.  The National Park is great – reminded us of the Blue Ridge Parkway, but lots more stops and visitor centres and “living history” exhibits, etc.  

The difference between the Smoky Mtn Parkway and
Blue Ridge Parkway is the amount of people - and tour buses!

Well, they don't call them the "Smoky" Mtns for nothing...

We found the Appalachian Trail again - it crosses the
Smoky Mtns several times.  Note the mile marker to Maine - 1972 miles!

The highest peak in the Smoky Mtns is Clingman’s Dome which is 6643 ft. We parked and hiked up to the platform observation tower.   It was about 4 deg C up there – plus wind chill, we were thinking it was about minus 5 deg C up there (and John didn't bring a jacket!  He said he knows better, being from the Rockies and all...)  Contrast that with Calgary, which has been about 20 deg C... and look where we are!!! Weird!  Reminded us of our trip to Argentina in 2006.  It was much nicer in Calgary than in Argentina that year too.

We were definitely "in the clouds"

The elevated walkway to the Observation Platform

The signage provides pictures of what you "could" see
on a clear day.  This was definitely not a clear day...

Anyway... we drove about 40 miles through the Smoky Mtn parkway from Gatinburg, TN to Cherokee, NC.  It seemed different from the Blue Ridge Mtns in that the colours were not as intense, but the elevations were higher and so the views were just different. We were happy to have something different to look at.

Near the end of our Smoky Mtn experience, we found the Blue Ridge Mtn Parkway again!!!!  It ends at the Smoky Mtns (go figure) and so we drove 15 miles on that, to experience the “end” of the Blue Ridge parkway – since we’ve done so much of it.  We did 105 miles of the Blue Ridge mtns  - on the Shenandoah Skyline Drive on Oct 16^th, then 90 miles (mileposts 0-90) of the Blue Ridge Parkway in  Virginia on Oct 17^th,  75 miles of it (mileposts 200-275) in North Carolina on Oct 19^th and the last 15 miles of it today (in Tennessee) to end at milepost 469 for a total of 180 miles on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It was phenomenal. Today, we got to see the sunset over the Parkway.

  The Smoky Mtn parkway is less developed in terms of roads, but more developed in terms of hiking trails (800 miles within the park) and exhibits, etc.  We loved the hike up to the Clingman’s Dome, albeit it was in the clouds...

The most magnificent elk I've ever seen - at least 7 points

My favourite time of day - the sun is low and the autumn colours seem to fluoresce... gorgeous.

On our way back tonight, we saw some rutting elk. They were amazing!!!!  John said they were just learning how to fight, and the elder male (who was magnificent) was just hanging out with the females, oblivious to the “play” fighting going on with the younger males.  Such a sight...