A Rainy Lunch at Chimneys Picnic Area, Our Short Trek to Cataract Falls, Plus My Misadventure through Elkmont Campground

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We spent the morning relaxing at the campground. Andrew and I cooked up a quick breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, and we discussed our plans for the day. I thought it might be nice to have a picnic lunch up at Chimneys Picnic Area. After lunch, anyone who felt up for it could do the nature loop from there, which is supposed to be 1.1 miles. We thought this might be a good plan because it would be inclusive to everyone in the group, even if they didn't feel up for a hike.

The kids and Andrew took it easy playing some video games that don't require internet (the kids brought the Switch along for the road trip). I drove down to the E and F loop and hung out with Colleen, Gene, and Carol for awhile. I mentioned our picnic idea to them, but Colleen was worried she couldn't go because she needed to start cooking beans. There was only mild interest from everyone else. When Paul got up for the day, he thought the idea sounded good though. Colleen agreed to start the beans after we got back, so we went our separate ways to pack our picnic lunches.

Andrew and I made some egg salad for lunch and packed up the picnic bag. When we got back to the campsite, we found out that everyone else opted not to go. Paul and Colleen were going to stay back and rest, and Gene and Carol were going to do the Alum Cave Trail that we'd hiked yesterday.

So, Andrew, the kids, and I set out for Chimneys Picnic Area ourselves. As soon as we left, it started to rain. I'm not talking about a light drizzle. It started to pour! We decided to continue our current plan in case there were picnic shelters there. When we arrived, we saw that each picnic table spot had its own parking spot. There was a grill at each spot, too, but no shelters. The sight was actually a bit comical. Picnickers must have been hit by the rainstorm quite suddenly because everyone was sitting in their cars, with food still left out on the tables getting soaked. We decided to have a car picnic. We pulled into a spot and ate our sandwiches while listening to the rain.

We didn't notice the trail head when we pulled in because of all the rain. At any rate, we weren't going to do the hike in the middle of a downpour. We left after we finished our lunch, and the rain stopped just a few minutes later. We decided to pull into the Sugarlands Visitors Center to use the restroom and do the short nature trail there. A ranger gave us a map. It's supposed to be less than half a mile to Cataract Falls, making it under 1 mile round trip. It was perfect for us at that moment since we were still sore from the Alum Cave Trail.

We set out on the Cove Mountain Trail. It was flat, graded, and easy to hike. Different trees and shrubs were labeled along the way. It was shaded and not quite 70 degrees, but the humidity from the recent rain made it impossible to cool down as we hiked. To me, it felt like it was 90 degrees out.

Cataract Falls was pretty and certainly worth the easy hike. On the way back, I felt miserable from the heat and practically cried from relief when we made it back to the air conditioned visitor's center.

We went back to Paul and Colleen's campsite. Andrew and I helped cook the meal. Few people were hungry when the beans were finished, so we decided to go for a drive first. Gene and Carol wanted to check out the Historic Motor Nature Trail. I thought that sounded like a great idea because I wanted to check out one of the trail heads for tomorrow (Trillium Gap Trail, which is currently closed from 7am on Mondays through 5:30pm on Thursdays).

The drive was beautiful! I highly recommend it. We saw a black bear on our drive, and we stopped to check out Ephraim Ogle's home. The kids thought it was a lot of fun to run through the log buildings.

After dinner, we got to talking about the synchronous firefly viewing. Andrew and I wanted to take one night off from viewing so we could have a campfire with the kids and make s'mores. When we go out to see the lightning bugs, we don't get back until about 11pm. We were tired and thought it would be good to go to bed at a good hour one night.

Paul, Colleen, Gene, and Carol discussed where they should go view the fireflies. Last night, a local man had told us about his "secret spot" for viewing, but he struggled to describe how to get to it. He told us he was only sharing the spot location with us because Paul and Colleen lived in Montana, and he loves Montana. The spot he described was as follows: You know when you arrive where the shuttle drops the shuttle people off. You know it's a loop? You go right." I asked him if he meant Jacob's Trail, and he said no. He said, "It's on the way to Jacob's Trail, but it's not Jacob's Trail. You don't walk very far at all." I tried to describe my understanding to him, "OK, so when we arrive, there are two trails. Little River Trail is on the left, and Jacob's Trail is kind of straight ahead. We head that way, but we don't go all the way to the trail." He told me to stop talking because I wasn't listening. No one else seemed to understand his directions either. We tried to find his "secret spot" last night but had no luck. The synchronous firefly display was nice, but not as nice as Monday night. So, we really wanted to try to find a better viewing spot.

The strange man walked by the campsite again, deep in talk with other campers. I decided to follow him to figure out where he was going. I was faster than their small group and got to the bridge first. After I crossed over, I pretended to tie my shoes to let them pass. I followed them a short distance, but then he stopped to talk to a ranger. He kept talking and talking! I observed a snail for a while. After that, the strange man was still chatting away with the ranger, so I stopped to talk to another ranger. She told me it's silly and dangerous to cross the bridge at night after watching the fireflies because the shuttles pass through there. She said I should take the loop to the south that leads to Elkmont's N loop. It's safer and easier, she assured me.

The strange man finally finished his talk with the other ranger and began his trek to his secret spot. He went up the little paved road that leads to Jacob's Trail. He stopped a short distance up and set his chair there. This was a much shorter walk from the campsite than we'd been doing along Little River Trail. I thought everyone would be happy to hear that the walk would be even easier than before.

I was going to turn around and head back but decided to follow the ranger's directions. I crossed over a bridge toward the N loop. I started to walk north through the N loop, and it took quite a while to reach the M loop. If I'd gone the other way, I'd be back already. I thought maybe the other loops would be a lot shorter and continued on. At the L loop, I realized my mistake. To get back to the E/F loop, I was going to have to walk north from L to K to J, and then there was supposed to be a bridge going across to Loop B. From there, I'd have to walk south from B to C to D to E to where it merged with F. That was insane! However, at that point, I'd walked a long distance, so I thought maybe it would make sense to continue on and see the new route to compare it. When I was almost to the J loop, I could faintly see Andrew and his family sitting out at F004 campsite. I figured they must be starting to worry about me at that point. I stopped across the Little River and tried yelling to them and waving my arms for them to see me, but to no avail. I continued on. There was no bridge connecting to the B loop, so I stopped to ask some campers. They said I had to keep going. After the J loop ended, it turned into a quiet, 2 lane road. There were no cars on this stretch. It went nearly a quarter mile. I hiked in silence by myself in the dusk and imagined I heard bears in the forest around me. I silently cursed the ranger who insisted this was the safer route back to the campsite. I wished so badly there was cell service here so I could let the family know I was OK. When I reached the bridge that led to the B loop, I felt intense relief. It'd been about an hour since I set out to follow the strange man, and I would have been back long ago if I'd taken the easy, short route from the camp site. I used the restroom and then started my trek down to the E/F loop.

I finally, finally arrived back at the campsite and relayed my story to Colleen and Carol. They told me Andrew was freaking out that I'd disappeared, and he set out trying to find me. Oh geez. "If he comes back, ask him to stay here. I'm going to go back across the bridge and look for him by the shuttles. If he's not there, I'm coming back."

I went back across the bridge to the shuttles, a walk that took just 2 minutes. Compare that to the 1 hour trek the ranger had me take! Andrew was just getting to the bridge from the shuttle area when I arrived. We hugged, and I relayed my story to him. I apologized to him every two minutes throughout my tale. "She said it was the easier, safer route! I'm so sorry!"

Colleen, Paul, Gene, and Carol then set out to the "secret spot" I described to watch the fireflies. Andrew and I took the kids back up to our campsite in the B loop. We made s'mores and relaxed by the fire. We could actually see some of the synchronous fireflies from our campsite, over Little River, but the numbers weren't very impressive and the view was frequently interrupted by the lights of passing cars.

Apparently, the secret spot proved to be fruitful. They came back raving about the synchronous firefly display they saw and how they were surrounded by the flashing lights. Andrew and I agreed to go there tomorrow night for our last night at Elkmont.

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Photos

Rainy Car Picnic
Chimneys Picnic Area at The Great Smoky Mountains

Setting Out on Cove Mountain Trail
It's a short, easy hike to Cataract Falls, but the humidity was insane at the time and it felt like 90 degrees outside (even though it was only 70).