Smoky Mountains Road Trip
 |
| View from the Blue Ridge Parkway at the Smoky Mountains |
We have been to to the Smokey Mountain area many times, but never in October, so we decided to take a four day weekend and go look at the changing leaves. We were not disappointed, the trees were in prime colors.
There are many things to do in this area of Tennessee and North Carolina, we always try and visit our favorite haunts, as well as find something new to see and do. To many people, when you mention the Smokey's they immediately think of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, the two major towns at the north side of the National Park. Both of these towns are extreme tourist towns, with every kind of adult and children's activity you can think of. But there is much more to do, in this area, than these two towns.
Day 1
We started late in the day for a 6 1/2 hour drive to Pigeon Forge. There are hundreds of places to stay in the area, from rental houses, log cabins and hundreds of hotel rooms. We got a condo with full kitchen for the price of a normal hotel room.
Heading down 75 towards Knoxville, TN, I missed turning off on 640 and decided to continue on to 441, this turn out to be a fortunate mistake. The normal route would be to take 640 at Knoxville, to Hwy 40 and exit at Hwy 66 heading to Seiverville. We later found out that Hwy 66 going into Pigeon Forge was down to one lane in some spots and it would have taken a couple of hours just to get to our hotel.
One thing we have learned about this area; if you want to get around you must learn how to travel the back roads to avoid the crowds during the weekends. Or you can end up spending much of your vacation setting in traffic. Note: Purchase a local map, it can save you hours setting in traffic.
Day 2
We stopped at one of the many Pancake houses for breakfast. We noticed that traffic at 8:00 am was already picking up, so we skirted the main drag and headed to Gatlinburg for our first hike of the day.
Taking the River Road in town to avoid main street, we headed towards the NP entrance.
We decided to warm up by taking a easy hike from the South end of Gatlinburg to the NP visitor center.
 |
| Beautiful Mountain Stream |
This is a nice easy 2 mile hike along a mountain stream ending at the Visitor's Center. The visitor center often has special programs during tourist season, the program for today was Mountain Music in the auditorium.
We spotted a sign for Cataract Falls, so we took this quick 3 ten's of a mile side trip. This was a small Falls, but was a nice walk if you are at the Sugar Lands Visitor Center. We then head back to Gatlinburg for an good warm up walk of 4.3 miles.
Note: This is one of the few free National Parks, it is best enjoyed by taking a hike in the woods, see the ranger at the Visitor's Center for a list of hikes, even the easy ones get you back into some great scenic areas.
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail:
 |
| Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail |
We headed back into town and then drove out the Cherokee Orchard Rd to the Nature Trail.
This is a one way motor route through the mountains starting and ending in Gatlinburg. This is one of the great drives in America, often missed by those traveling to Gatlinburg. Before you head to the Nature Trail, stop by one of the restaurants and pick up take out lunch. You will find many spots to enjoy it along the motor route.
Along this route you can find a number of trail heads. One of the more popular is Rainbow Falls, It is a strenuous hike to the falls, and you can continue on to Mount Le Conte the highest peak in the park. Be aware you will be climbing 4000 feet in 6.7 miles but it is the shortest way to the summit of Mount Le Conte.
There is a lodge at the top of the mountain, but you must make reservations well in advance and the only means of transportation to the summit is by foot. In the past we have used this trail to get to the summit. Be aware, this trail is also used by pack Lamas carrying supplies to the Mount Le Conte Lodge, so you must watch where you walk.
If going to the summit I would suggest the Alum Cave Trail, it is a bit longer (10 miles round trip) but is an easer climb. Although nothing is easy when hiking in the mountains.
As always, we enjoyed the Motor Trail; for lunch we planned to eat at the Purple Plum Tea Room, coming off the Motor Trail, we were able to avoid town and turning onto Hwy 321 we headed to the "Craftsman area", a few files outside of Gatlinburg.
Craftsman Area:
This area located off of HWY 321 is much like driving through Brown County IN. As you drive through the hills, you will find local craftsman at work, candle makers, painters, weavers, carvers, toy makers, etc. Maps are available at most restaurants and stores and the area is a wonderful place to explore. While snooping around the area, a few years ago, we discovered the Purple Plum Tea Room. I won't tell you exactly where it is located, but it is easy to find and is probably on one of the maps. They serve hot and cold plum tea as well as soup and sandwiches and good deserts. But don't expect to get a hamburger, I had one of the specials of the day, a Salmon sandwich with soup and Melissa had Chicken Salad. We shared a Bread Pudding desert.
Note: This is not a cheap restaurant, but is an out of the way treat and we were entertained by dulcimer music the entire time. Sandwiches are 8.00 - 15.00.
Since we had never been to the area in October we didn't know exactly how crowded it would be, all the Trail Heads around Gatlinburg area, were over run. The trails would have to be toe to butt, so we headed to a less congested area of the NP to do some hiking.
Leaving the Purple Plum we quickly got back to Hwy 321 heading east. There are two lesser hiked area's along this road, one is the Greenbrier area, the other is the Crosby area. We decide to pass up Greenbrier and head to Cosby. This is a beautiful area, containing a campground and picnic area, it is another good place to get away and enjoy a nice picnic lunch, away from the crowds.
Hen Wallow Falls:
 |
| Nice Trail |
At Cosby, we decided to hike to Hen Wallow Falls, this was a 4.4 round trip hike. We left the parking lot and started up the trail, from the first step we started climbing and continued upward for 2.1 miles, it was a weary hike extending up over 2000 vertical feet. At 2.1 miles there was a sign indicating the falls was to the right, this one tenth of a mile, was down a VERY steep trail. We debated whether to go down this trail or just say we were close enough. After resting a few minutes we decided, since we had come this far, we might as well see the falls.
So down we went; the falls were OK, but would probably look better in the spring, but it was still a Kodak moment; when I tried to take a picture, I discovered, my EverReady batteries, were not ready. O' well, I guess I will have to get a picture next time. Right!
After a few minutes staring at the falls, we realized that we were the only one's left on the mountain; a thought quickly ran through my mind, what time does it get dark in this area of the mountains, it was already after 5:00pm.
There was no need to panic, I quickly checked my small emergency pack and discovered, I did have a small flash light; our concern then changed to getting hypothermia, as we had no jackets, I forget matches and the temperature would drop quickly after the sun went down. So maybe I panicked a little….
Returning back up the VERY steep, trail, we then started back down the steep trail, toward the parking lot. I was highly encourging Melissa to hurry, but she insisted on gingerly picking her way down the trail, something about her feet hurt. After telling her she was going to freeze to death!, there's a rattle snake!, I hear a bear!, we made it down with about 15 minutes to spare before dark. I was relieved I would not have to rub to sticks together.
Day 3
Today we want to travel over the top of the mountain to the back side of the Smoky Mountains. Again we stopped at another Pancake House, I guess you can tell I love pancakes, we took the bypass around Gatlinburg, and headed up the Newfound Gap Road, during the tourist season this can be bumper to bumper, so get an early start. At Newfound Gap, you can park and take a walk on the Appalachian Trail, or take a side trip to Clingmans Dome, at 6,643 feet it is the third highest point in the Eastern US.
We had not been to the dome in a number of years , so we took the 7 mile road heading towards the Clingmans Dome. It was a bright sunny day until we got about 1 mile from the dome, and then we could see the big black cloud completely obscuring the dome area. It was still cool to watch the clouds roll over the mountain top, completely covering cars with a blanket of fog.
Many people still took the half mile ramp up to the top of the observation tower. I guess it could have been out of the clouds, but we were not taking the chance. So we decide to head on to the town of Cherokee. On the way down the mountain there are a number of pull off areas that offer a nice place for a quite walk. We stopped at the Kephart Prong Trail, this was a nice area for a walk, that doesn’t go anywhere particular, so you can just walk as long as you want.
 |
| Trails at the Deep Creek Camp Ground area |
Cherokee:
Just before leaving the Park you will see the entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway, there are a number of parkways and skyways throughout America, they are very unique drives, you will find no restaurants or gas stations on the parkways. They are a two lane roads running through the most beautiful areas of the country.
Note: The Blue Ridge Parkway starts right here just at the edge of the NP and runs 469 to Waynesboro VA.
The parkways are beautiful, but can be boring unless you learn to take your time and stop at the many historic and side trips along the route. A map detailing each route can be downloaded from the internet. Other favorite parkways in TN are the Cherohala Skyway and the Natchez parkway.
We drove up the parkway a couple of miles to the first over look, it was a great view of the valley.
We then returned back to Cherokee.
Cherokee is located on the Cherokee Indian Reservation, there are many gift shops, Indian Culture Events and even a Casino. Cherokee is also a tourist town on the reservation but is tame compared to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge. We grabbed a quick lunch and headed to a part of the Smoky's we had never been before.
Bryson City:
Leaving Cherokee we took HWY 19 toward Bryson City, I have always wanted to visit this area and we ended up not being disappointed. Bryson City, is a small town with many restaurants and shops, the big draw is the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, that takes passengers on a couple of different scenic rides.
See their web site for more information. I had heard there was also a good hiking area at the Deep Creek camp ground area. We quickly covered the short route from the downtown area to the camp ground. We parked in the Trailhead parking lot and had a couple of trail choices. We choose the Deep Creek Trail, this was a level, trail formally a logging trail, we wandered along the trail, along side a mountain stream, passing water falls and crossing bridges.
After about a mile we came to a sign that said Juney Whank Falls 1.2 miles. We knew this was about three tenths of a mile from the car, so we decide to take the trail making it a nice loop back to the car. Just as we started down the trail, another party of 3 joined us and we all started up the trail, it wasn't long before we came to a fork in the road, one trail went left and on the right was a sign that said NO horses.
 |
| Watch the Water Fall |
At this point I want to state that it was Melissa that insisted we not take the horse trail. So we all started up the right trail. This trail made our earlier hiking seem like a walk in the park. This trail just went straight up the side of the mountain, it was the steepest hike we have ever done, after about 1/2 mile, the trail turned right and went straight up the side of a bank, we had to hold on to trees and pull ourselves up. The other 3 in our group had pulled ahead and were already at the top. After much effort we neared a small clearing and we could see the speedy party that left us behind. They were looking grim for some reason.
As we approached we could see they were setting on tomb stones. The trail literally was a Dead End ending in a grave yard. At this point it entered my mind that thy could have yelled and told us not to come up any further. But I thought it best not to bring this up as it appeared, they blamed us on picking the wrong trail and were probably deciding on whether to add some more head stones to the grave yard. Well you can't win them all….. It is still a great area to walk and bicycles are also welcome on the main trails. It looked like Bryson City had some interesting shopping opportunities, but we did not have time to investigate on this trip.
Bryson City is a very nice area in NC and we plan to go back. If you go stay at the Microtel and eat at Jimmy Mac.
 |
| Deep Creek Area |
Day 4
We got up and had a waffle at the hotel, then headed down HWY 19, this was a GREAT drive. We did get lost as HWY 19 joins HWY 74 make sure you don't miss this if you take this route. A few miles up the road HWY 19/74 take off to the left, take this road. Hwy 19 takes you down to the Nantahala valley.
There you will find the Nantahala Outdoor Center. This is a very Scenic area and worth the drive.
When you finally get down to the river stop at the small community; River Rafting is the big draw, as the water is released each day from the Fontana dam. The Nantahala Outdoor Center is one of the stops you can take on the train from Bryson City. Water is released at this time of year around 8:00am and takes a couple of hours to get to this area of the river. Olympic water sports often train on this 8 mile stretch of the river. There is a couple of restaurants and the Appalachian Trail crosses the road in front of the Outdoor shop. It’s a good place to take a quick hike. We definitely want to go back to this area. Mountain Bike rentals are also available from the Outdoor Shop.
Tail of the Dragon HWY 129.
The Tail of the Dragon is the curviest road in America, with 318 curves in 11 miles.
We continued on the very scenic HWY 19/74 to N129. At Robbinsville you can catch the Cherohala Senic Skyway, this is also a great drive and we have taken this road in the past. This time we stayed on N129 to hit the Tail of the Dragon. This is the number one Motorcycle drive in America but is fun in any car. But I would probably not try this in a camper.
After a great drive, we turned right onto the Foothills parkway to take us back toward Townsend.
Townsend:
If you don't like the tourists area of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, then Townsend might be for you, it is considered the quite side of the NP. There is tubing, biking, a commercial cave and Cades Cove.
Cades Cove, is a great area to see wild life, we have seen bear in this area more than any where else in the park. There are also many great hiking trails in this area. In the summer you can have a nice swim in a mountain stream, park in the lot at the corner of Hwy 73 and Laurel Creek Road.
On this trip we grabbed a quick lunch at the Carriage House Restaurant, as they have a good buffet. Because of time, we skipped Cades Cove, and took the Laurel Creek Road back to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge to do some shopping before heading home.
It was a great trip and if you have not visited this area you are missing a great time. Just remember to get into the NP and the surrounding area or you can soon get bored with Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.
 |
| Townsend Area |
Also the best time to visit the shops of Gatlinburg is at night. And you should visit Dollywood at least once in your life.
