4th week in Greenville

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Sunday: Great Smokey Mountain National Park day 1. Drove through the park on the main road from east to west, stopping at all the scenic overlooks. The weather was overcast, about 55* but really humid. I'm so not accustomed to hiking in humidity. I hiked up to the Chimney tops you can see in the photo which was incredibly steep and the last half mile was over 400 steps. Phew! Smoky mountains averages 60 inches of rain a year which makes everything so green and water flows year round with so many waterfalls everywhere. By about 4pm the temperature started to radically drop and it started to rain (and later snow).

Monday: Smoky Mountain National Park day 2. Driving back to the park this morning was like a winter wonderland where so many hills and mountains along the way had been covered in white over night but by 10am the main roads were clear and it was sunny. A perfect way to experience winter in my book. And also a sign that its getting cold and I need to head south to warmer weather. The main road in Smoky mountains got about 9 inches of snow at the top and it was closed for the day as was the visitor center. The main entrance area was pretty empty except for a herd of Elk who were just hanging out on the roadway eating their breakfast! So I explored the Eastern NC side of the park which is much less visited. The Eastern side of the park borders the Cherokee Indian Reservation while the Western side is the tourist town of Gatlinburg. I found a great trail that went by 4 waterfalls. No snow at this elevation of the park but it was in the high 30s all day long but full sun. It was pretty spectacular to see the park in 2 different weather conditions 2 days in a row.

Saturday: Travel day to the Georgia coast. Shortly after crossing the border to Georgia I came upon "Peach World" which sold every food item you can think of with peaches added. Peach hot sauce, peach peanuts, peach chocolates, peach salsa. You name it and they had it! Luckily this travel day had no hiccups or issues unlike my trip from KY to SC 4 weeks ago with the tornados and overturned semi! Arriving at the GA coast you could smell the salt in the air and it was about 15 degrees warmer. No beaches here but looks like lots of nature preserves to explore in the coming weeks.

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