Great Weekend in Great Smoky Mountain National Park


Advertisement
Published: June 9th 2009
Edit Blog Post

ahhhhh.... what a wonderful weekend this has been. Yesterday we finished the drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway and we even had beautiful weather! We even got to eat our lunch outside on a picnic table!!! Unfortunately I didn't see much of it 'cause I got a little car sick, so slept most of the drive. However, what I did see was gorgeous and I was told I missed several really great overlooks. It's definitely a drive I would like to do again, but next time I'd take more than 2 days. It took us about 16 hours to drive the whole parkway, so that didn't leave much time to see much along the way. Even though I didn't get to see much of it (due to a rainy and foggy day the first half of the drive and sleeping through the other half the next day), it's definitely a drive I would recommend.

We were slightly anxious when we arrived at Great Smoky Mountain, since we had arrived a day early and weren't sure that we had a camp site for the night (despite having called the campgrounds several times earlier that day and left a message). We finally arrived at Cades Cove (where our reservation was for tonight) and the campground was full. Despite that, we ended up getting the last available spot! Woohoo! We didn't have much of the evening left, so we set up our tent, and enjoyed the evening relaxing around our campfire. It was so peaceful (despite the full campground).

Today we woke up early (in part thanks to the beautiful songs of the birds) packed up our gear (since we had to change campsites) and took off for a drive around Cades Cove. It's a part of the park (in Tennessee) that once had over 700 people living in the area (about 100 farming families). They all gave up their farms, some more willing than others, for the park. We took a drive around the Cades Cove Loop (a very beautiful drive and one I would recommend). It's a great drive to see wildlife (we even saw a couple bears and a couple baby bears in a tree). However, if you do take the drive, please please please do not stop in the middle of the road. It's a one lane road and is really annoying when people stop and/or drive 5 miles an hour for the entire loop! (11 miles). A little over half-way through the loop is the beginning of Abraham Falls trail. It's a 2.5 mile hike to the falls. It's a beautiful hike that follows the water most of the way. We definitely enjoyed the walk and the falls were quite nice =). On our way back we stopped to stick our feet in the water as it was so inviting.... It looked much nicer than it felt. It was sooooooo cold!! =)

From there we finished the drive, went back to the campground, set up our tent at our new site and enjoyed a nice relaxing lunch break. Being it was a Sunday, the campground had cleared out some, although there were still a decent amount of people there. Oh, side note... if you don't like spiders, you probably wouldn't like camping at Cades Cove. They were everywhere!!! (including several in our tent the first night).

That afternoon we headed to Two-Pronged something and enjoyed a nice peaceful hike through the woods. That one wasn't anything spectacular, but was simply a little over 2 mile hike along a river. Only once did we see anyone else along the trail, it was very tranquil. The ranger I spoke with at the campground said Cades Cove probably isn't the most spectacular part of the park, although it is quite nice. So, although I enjoyed where we were, if I were come back to the park I'd probably stay elsewhere (or stay longer to have more time to visit other parts of the park). There are sooooo many trails to hike along. I could definitely spend awhile here =)

This evening, I introduced Juli and Evy to a very important part of American camping tradition.... S'MORES!!!! We finally got our campfire going (thanks to much effort from Evy) and enjoyed roasting our marshmallows over the fire. We spent the rest of the evening playing cards and sitting around the fire. A great way to spend the our last evening there.

The last embers of the fire are starting to go out, so it's time to head off to bed. We want to get an early start for our drive to New Orleans via Birmingham, AL. See you all there. Sweet Dreams=)


Additional photos below
Photos: 10, Displayed: 10


Advertisement



Tot: 0.224s; Tpl: 0.02s; cc: 19; qc: 69; dbt: 0.1174s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb