What a nice day we had! We got up and moved quickly in order to arrive at the National Park before the crowds. It was raining a bit, but the forecast had been for early morning rain, and then clearing, and we decided to trust it, figuring we could always leave if it didn’t work out. Well, work out it did! In spades!
A half hour drive got us to the park entrance, which unlike most parks, was not really marked, and did not have a booth to collect an entrance fee. We were guessing a bit as we made our way on a narrow road through dense foliage and trees, but soon came upon a Welcome Center, which I thought we must have passed without seeing! Ok....we are on the right path! The roads through the three towns provide numbered traffic lights, and sights and directions are provided with the number! Turn left at light 17, etc.....very clever, but I had never seen anything like it! And this stretch had run out of lights. But we now knew we were on the right path.
We stopped and gathered some basic information, then made our way to the Sugarlands Visitor Center, where we watched an introduction video to the park, and made note of the many warnings to stay away from the bears and wildlife. With about 1500 black bears in mountains, roughly 2 per square mile, we were likely to see one, and I was excited about the prospect! Try as we might, we never did see one in Yellowstone.
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| I pulled over to get a shot of the raging water along the roadside. We climbed to a point, then followed this all the way down to the cove loop. |
Despite our best efforts, we were a bit later than plan, and as we were ready to leave, hordes were coming into the center, including a group of Amish folks......maybe on a bus? Or a large buggy, maybe! We beat a hasty retreat, and set out for the 11 mile Cades Cove Loop, which is a must see.
Of the stops along the way, and in the loop, the first was Laurel Falls, which I had hoped to hike to, but the parking lot was already full, and a couple of cars waiting for people to leave, so we took a pass, figuring we could make it on the return trip. As it turns out, we exhausted our time and energy during the rest of the day, so may return another day for some hikes to the falls.
There is also a drive to Clingman’s Dome, the highest point, but I am confused about how far that really is from our entrance on the north side of the park, since mapquest says over 2 hours, but the less than enthusiastic ranger we spoke to said 20 miles. That guy should not be in the information center! We had to pull things out of him, and got very little even then!
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| Further down, the first parking spot at The Sinks, where the river rushes over small falls. |
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| And a sign as we approached the cove. |
Cades Cove was a settlement in the “cove” or flat valley between the mountains, starting in the early 1800s. For the next 100 years, folks traveled on narrow, unpaved two way roads where the narrow one way road now exists. So narrow and winding is the road leading to the loop, that it takes nearly an hour to reach it, though it is only 24 miles from the visitor center. An uncommon place where both wildlife and cultural treasures can be seen, there are turnouts provided to allow a closer look, or to snap a photo, both along the approach road, and throughout the loop. Parking on the loop allows visiting the original log cabins and churches, which sometimes requires a hike to see. I drove, and Clem followed the guide and at first had us stopping at each one. When I asked just how many there were, I told him he should probably pick and choose, and some were a bit off the road, and time and his energy would run out! And run out we did!
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| One of our first views at the bottom....and the sun! |
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The log cabins in the area are the structures that were basically preserved when the park took over the lands, along with only a few other churches which were framed buildings. The first park to be created from private lands, a movement began to save the area in the early 1900's when logging started destroying it. People were paid for their property, and most went along, with stipulation that they would accept less, if allowed to live there until their death, and the heirs not inherit.
( More photos to follow.....want to get moving today, and they take too much time! :-) )
Our second stop to see a cabin required a bit of hiking, and someone along the trail had spotted a bear sleeping in a tree, so everyone up and down the trail was stopping to see him. I was astounded to see him, a big black blob barely visible through the leaves, with a giant paw hanging down on either side of the large branch! I had been watching open areas for wildlife, and would never have thought to look UP! But there he was, and I later learned that the bears in the Smokies spend a good deal of their time in the trees. Shortly after, a nice young man spotted a cub making his way along a branch farther away, and pointed the way for us to see. We shared our binoculars with them, and they shared tales of having seen 17 on this visit! They told us of a road to take where they saw them just walking along the road, and their little girl showed me photos on her cell phone.
A pretty good hike led to the site of the second cabin and its outbuildings.
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| Hardly visible except the big paws hanging down on our way to the cabin, he had rearranged himself and turned his head when we got back from our hike and we got a better view. |
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| If you look closely, you can see his tongue sticking out! |
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| I especially liked the chimney. The cabins have been renovated and restored. |
We finally made it to the cove’s visitor center at the half way point, both needing a bathroom badly, and running out of steam! I had packed a picnic lunch, but though they said there was a picnic area, there were no tables. But I had my handy picnic blanket, which is always in my car, and yet rarely been used, and it indeed came in handy finally!
We enjoyed a relaxing lunch under a tree, wondering at how these folks lived here, and mustering enough energy to see the structures there before doing the rest of the loop.
Though asked to use the pull offs rather than hold up traffic, the second part of the loop became dead stop at times, leaving us to wonder just what was going on. A bear in the road? Turkeys crossing? Sure enough, on the second serious slow down, a Ranger was in the road encouraging folks to move along to the parking area around the bend in order to get a look. A big bear was asleep in the tree tops, and people were stopped to see. Can't blame them at all...but we moved on, as we had had plenty of time on the trail to get our fill and some photos.
Though the traffic on the second part of the loop had slowed, it did open up again, and I realized that despite the number of people there, the park is huge, and you don’t feel the crowds like you do in some places. We finished the loop, and rather than returning on the same road, found our way to an alternate route out of the park that the ranger had provided, and returned via ............., where along the road we spotted many country stores and RV parks and cabins for rent, and up in the hilltops some lovely homes popping out of the trees. One of the stores looked quite charming, and a sign promised ice cream, so we couldn’t resist! Clem was of course enjoying a fun chat with the clerk while I shopped their wares, and I joined him when I heard them laughing and learned she and her family had relocated from Nashville because the country music had changed her hometown so much, and she didn’t want to raise her sons there! She said she could not recognize her home any more.....thought it odd that so many people liked it so much. Nice lady, some fudge samples,....ok, and a small purchase.....and some pretty good ice cream which we enjoyed sitting on the front porch, then back to the coach, where we dragged our weary selves in and both caught a snooze! A fun full day!
Pretty cool to get the bear!
ReplyDeleteI was pretty excited! Kept thinking about our experience at Yellowstone, and how we never did see one!
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