Hiking and Camping in the Great Smoky Mountain's
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2007
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5
141
Trip End
Ongoing
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Gatlinburg,
Tennessee,
United States
Monday, October 16, 2006
Continuing our journey south, we drove through Virginia and Tennessee to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The Smokies is the most popular National Park in the US, with 3-4 million visitors per year. And for a good reason - it is a beautiful park, with lots of camping and hiking opportunities, abundant wildlife, postcard-worthy views at every turn. We arrived when the trees were still in peak fall foliage - the trees looked like a bowl of Fruit Loops with their bright orange, red, and yellow colors. And the bears had not yet hibernated for the winter. We were lucky enough to see a mama bear and her two cubs eating grass by the side of the road on one nature drive.
The Smoky Mountains span across North Carolina and Tennessee, with one highway dissecting the park that connects the two states. We drove towards the park from the Tennessee (western) side. It was dark and rainy by the time we arrived the time we arrived, so we decided to get a hotel room for the night and start out early the next day to find a campsite. Armed with another stack of brochures from the Tennessee Visitors Center, we called around to the area's hotels. Our bad luck with hotels continued and we found that almost all of them were sold out! Holiday Inns, Best Westerns, Fairfield Inn, etc. All were sold out. Even in Dolly Parton's Pigeon Forge (aka Pigeon Poop) they were sold out. Now that's an interesting destination... 10 miles of stoplights, Jamborees, Revival Shows, and not 1 but 8 (yes Eight!) Outlet Malls... Finally we lucked out and there were a couple rooms left at the Microtel in Gatlinburg. Yeah! We quickly secured a room, and soon learned why they were the only hotel in town with rooms. The bathroom walls were moldy from the peeled wallpaper and the name of the hotel "Microtel" was very fitting for the room size. But - it was a room with heat and internet and did the job. Gatlinburg is an, uhhhhh, interesting town. A faux Alpine village with numerous taffy shops, outlet malls, not 1 but 2 Ripley's Believe It Or Nots, a replica Space Needle, and a couple ski lifts/gondolas. We found a pub nearby - named "Hogs and Honeys", an attempt to mimic the Hogs & Heffers bar in New York City. We grabbed a couple pints of Guinness and barstools overlooking the street and spent the rainy evening people watching. We met some other tourists at the bar, including a friendly couple from Tennessee whose names were Danny & Sandy! (Go Grease Lightning!)
That night, we woke up several times in the middle of the night to the sound of the howling wind and branches and leaves being whipped against the window. We woke up the next morning to find the power was out in our hotel and the entire town. The major windstorm knocked out power lines throughout the region. We packed up and headed into the Smoky Mountains, only to find the road closed! The storm knocked out so many trees, that they closed all roads in and out of the park for a couple days! Later, a ranger we met told us a wind gauge in the mountains registered sustained winds of 100 miles per hour! Hurricane force! After snooping around the visitor center, we found out that one campground was re-opened - Cosby Campground located in the far northwest corner of the park. We high-tailed it there and found the campground nearly empty. Of the 150+ sites, only 2 were taken. The others had evacuated earlier that morning.
We setup camp in Cosby Campground and fell in love with it. It was quiet, beautiful, with lots of gorgeous hikes nearby. Colorful trees all around, and owls hooting in the evenings. We stayed for 6 nights. We went on several lovely long hikes, including an 11+ mile hike along the Appalachian Trail up to a view tower called Mount Cammerer, which was the site that registered 100 mph winds during the storm. The storm knocked down many trees and limbs of all sizes. Many large old trees were completely uprooted, taking several feet of roots and dirt with them. Many campsites were closed due to downed trees, and one huge tree crushed the roof of a large restroom. Several trails remained closed during our stay (though of course that didn't keep us off those trails!).
After 6 days at Cosby, we moved onto another campground in the Smoky Mountains - one named Elkmont Campground. Elkmont is one of the more popular campgrounds. Out of over 200+ campsites, we secured one of the very last sites for 3 evenings. Elkmont was a nice campground, but a bit noisy and crowded, especially after our peaceful Shangri-La at Cosby. We spent the next few days hiking the nearby trails, including one along a beautiful tree-lined river, and another up to a beautiful waterfall. On one hike, we came across the housing remains of the Appalachian Club. Founded in 1907, the Appalachian Club was a hunting, fishing, and social club for many Knoxville elitists. The Appalachian Club built many houses throughout the Elkmont region of the mountains, which served as a weekend getaway for the owners. Years later, when the National Park Service acquired the Smoky Mountains, the Appalachian Club members agreed to receive a payout in exchange for giving their property and land to the National Park Service upon the owners deaths. As recently as 2001, members were still living in these houses in the middle of the Park. The Park Service initially planned to tear down the houses and return the land to it's natural state. However, the Park's management is now considering other alternatives to restore the houses with minimal environmental impact. These mountain cottages are a really neat site - dozens of houses of all sizes and styles spread throughout the area, some along streams and some hidden away in the trees.
After 10 days of hiking and camping in the Smoky Mountains, we packed up and moved out. We enjoyed the Smokies, but it started to get really cold. A couple days before we left, it started snowing on the mountain. Some days barely got above freezing. And we needed a shower - bad! The Park had no hot water or showers, so during our stay we would drive to a border town outside the park for a pay-by-the-minute shower. After 3 nights in Elkmont, we were overdue for a good cleaning!
Next stop: a hot shower in North Carolina!
