The Great Smoky Mountains

This is the type of picture that lured me to the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee.  I didn’t really know much about the Southeast, have never been there and I thought just maybe I have been missing out on a beautiful place.  These types of fall pictures would pop up on my Facebook feed every now and then and it made me think I must go to see this foliage.  Internet says best time for leaf peeping in the Smokies is late October, so our camping reservations in this National Park were made long ago and my sister and her husband agreed to  meet us there.  However, when we got there it didn’t look quite like the picture above.  The picture below is what we really saw.  Apparently, the Southeast has been in a major drought.  The trees were still green or they had already lost their leaves which were now laying on the ground and turning brown. The reds and the oranges were far and few between.  Same story across the country – unusual weather patterns.

We went on a ranger-led walk and heard some history of the park. I knew that it is the most visited national park (10 million visitors in 2015) however what I did not know is that there is no admission fee.  Makes you wonder how can they maintain the facilities and services for all these people when there is no money coming in?  Before this land was a national park it was privately owned and there were various settlements in the area.  People’s family history is here, their houses, churches, cemeteries.  When the land was transferred to the federal government for the park in the 1930s, part of the agreement stated that there will never be a fee for people to access this area.  That is why they cannot charge people to get into this park.

A place in the park that I was attracted to is Clingmans Dome.  You know I am all about high places, usually hiking them but I am attracted to high points in general.  Clingmans Dome is the highest point in GSMNP.  Also, the highest point in Tennessee and the highest point on the Appalachian Trail, I had to see it!  My first thought was back to the big cairns along the AT on the side of Mount Washington in New Hampshire.  Such an extremely harsh environment, cold, windy and enveloped in white clouds. It did not make sense to me that this calm hilltop of Clingmans Dome is actually higher than Mount Washington.  Numbers certainly do not tell the whole story.  Clingmans Dome is 6,643 feet while Mount Washington is 6,288 feet. Clingmans Dome is a drive up with a short steep half mile paved walk to the observation area.  Not as satisfying as a true hike up a mountain but nice view all the same.

Because this park was once private land there is no shortage of old abandoned structures.  The most famous settlement area is Cades Cove.  There is an 11-mile driving loop where the speed limit is 20 – 35 mph and it is packed with cars.  Not really an ideal way to enjoy a NP but something to see if you are there. There are several old structures you can tour including this working mill where they were grinding corn.

Another area with old houses was near our campground, Elkmont.  The community was originally a logging camp but later the affluent built summer cottages here.  The cottages were eventually taken over by the park.  They have not been maintained by the park and are not an official attraction, just some old houses in the woods.  It is not clear if the park will tear them down or preserve them for historical significance.

During this part of the trip we had been on the road for almost 5 months and I was getting very tired.  Tired of camping, tired of breathing smoke into my lungs every night from people’s campfires, tired of being exposed to humidity, rain, cold and heat, tired of no internet (many NPs have no cell service), tired of not knowing where I am or how to get anywhere, tired of searching Google, Tripadvisor and Yelp for campgrounds with clean bathrooms, parks with hiking/biking trails, parking lots with room to park the van, restaurants with vegetarian food, grocery stores that are not all processed junk, laundromats that are not all moldy, hotels that aren’t too expensive and aren’t too dirty, tired of dehydrating myself to avoid getting up in the night, putting on shoes, unlocking the van (which turns on the headlights into the neighbors campsite), getting a flashlight and going out in the dark to the outhouse, tired of towns with no sidewalks (no walking allowed) and the list goes on.  I feel the need to get back to the West… back to what I know.