Day 1: We set out on our drive to Asheville, NC (455 miles) at about 10 am. We maneuvered around many tractor-trailers on I-81. It was a constant game of leap frog with semis and cars passing each other again and again at a pretty high rate of speed. The scenery was bucolic, the traffic frightful. We stayed at TownePlace Suites by Marriott. The visit to Asheville was expressly to have dinner with Barbara Muhlbeier at Chestnut in downtown Asheville.
Day 2: Today the mission is to drive to Nashville, TN (295 miles) via Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We headed down to Cherokee to pick up US-441 to cross through the mountains. We stopped by Oconaluftee Visitor Center and spoke with a park ranger about park possibilities. He was very helpful and offered many suggestions regarding what to see. I repaid his kindness by showing him some wildlife apps. We walked along the river to hopefully see some elk. No luck. Then we took Big Cover Road up to Mingo Falls after a false start. There was a nice waterfall at end of a steep stairway through the woods. Lots of people were climbing around the waterfall and posing for pictures.
We continued along Newfound Gap Road/US-441 to Clingmans Dome. Clingmans Dome has an elevation of 6,643 feet, the third highest mountain in the eastern US and the highest in the GSM. There is an observation tower up a long, steep, challenging walkway. The cement structure reminds me of the dilapidated Soviet cement structure Buzludzha in Bulgaria. The tower gives a great view of the surrounding conifer rainforest. The site was very busy with a long wait for a parking spot.
Before exiting GSNMP, we stopped by the Sugarlands Visitors Center just as it was closing. However, we chatted a bit with a park ranger who was busy taking down the flags. She had worked a Katmai National Park several years ago and remembered some of the rangers from Katmai.
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We also visited Great Smokey Mountains NP again while around Gatlinburg.
Day 8 (from around Gatlinburg): Morning came early in order to head to Cades Cove. Cove, in this case, means a flat valley between mountains or ridges. There is an 11-mile Cades Cove Loop Road. The Loop is about an hour's drive from Gatlinburg up and down windy roads through some beautiful forest. First stop was the information kiosk. We chatted with the park ranger and picked up a brochure on Cades Cove. There are about 15 black bears hanging out in the area, some with cubs. Hopefully, we'll see at least one. Driving is slow because you're looking for wildlife and because the road is windy, hilly and narrow. We passed a hiker who was traversing the loop on foot. There also was a mother-daughter duo bicycling the loop. We made a few stops. One stop was at a church and graveyard. Some of the graves had little confederate flags by them, others had coins strewn across them for some reason. Another visit was to the Cable Mill Historic Area and Visitors Center.
Stopped cars in the road or alongside of it usually indicate that there's something to see.
Well down the road, the cars were all backed up ahead of us and for a good reason. A black bear
was munching on vegetation at the edge of the road. It was so close I could have reached out and
touched it. The bear was completely unconcerned about its paparazzi. Further down the road we
stopped because other people had stopped, so there must have been something to see. A large
Barred Owl was hidden in the tree with a coterie of photographers with big lenses pointing in
its direction. We also saw some deer and some wild turkeys on the loop drive.
Author: Jackie