Trip to the Smoky Mountains
September 6th thru 16th, 2023
David J Brzezinski
Our trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park finally happened. Our original plan was to go in 2020, but the COVID pandemic scrapped that plan. We planned to go again in 2021, but after making all the reservations, Linda had a medical emergency a week before the trip and we had to cancel everything. So, we tried again in 2023.
Kentucky Horse Park
Our plan was to stay at the Kentucky Horse Park on Wednesday night, about a 5 hour drive from Ann Arbor. Rather than a relaxing drive, it began to rain as we crossed Ohio on I-75. Not just any rain, but a torrential thunderstorm that lasted all the way to Kentucky. You could barely make out the taillights of the truck with emergency flashers in front of you. It did finally clear as we entered Kentucky and by the time we arrived at the park, it was quite nice. The campground is next to the events at the park and you could hear announcements during events. The campground was started in 1977, and based on the apparent age of the trees in the campground (about 50 years old), most (if not all) of the trees had been planted when they set out the campsites. Lots of nice white pines. We had planned on not having a water hookup, but it turns out they did have water at most sites.
We planned to stay in Kentucky the next day to go to the 2023 Rocky Mountain Horse International Show at the park. We brought our dog, Buddy, with us and, as usual, he was a hit with the other tourists and the staff. He got to do some nose-to-nose sniffing with some of the horses, but in general, I think the horses made him nervous. At the international breed exhibit arena show, where the various horses ride in an arena and come close to the audience, Buddy was getting really anxious, since we sat in the first row. Horses are big animals. We did ride on a horse drawn trolley tour with him. The big event was the Rocky Mountain Horse International Show. They had various categories of the horses go through their gait and judges gave awards in each category. There were many beautiful horses that were a joy to watch. We would try to guess which horses would get awards.
Camping
On Friday, we packed up and headed for Pigeon Forge, where we were going to camp. Our private campground was right in Pigeon Forge and came with water, electricity and sewage hookups for a long stay. We had a little trouble getting there. My plan to take I-75 right into Knoxville and take 441 out to Pigeon Forge took us right through the downtown and through miles of stop-and-go suburban neighborhoods with our camper trailer. Linda looked up the route on her phone and it told us to turn off 441 earlier than I expected. The road we found ourselves on was a narrow road twisting and turning up and down through the hills with multiple switches to new twisty roads for miles and miles. Eventually, this route dumped us off on 321 and into Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. It turns out, after looking on a map, that this route was a “short cut” that cut off a few miles of travel down 441 at the expense of the trip down the narrow twisty roads. I don’t trust the routes suggested by the phone applications.
Pigeon Forge was a zoo from the beginning. The main road through town is a massively wide boulevard with three lanes on each side and parking lots along the boulevard. Pigeon Forge was gearing up for a week of classic automobiles and every parking lot was jammed with cars from every decade done up as hot rods, custom or restored. The lane closest to the parking crept along to allow people to browse spectacle. Of course, our turn was at the far end of the town, so we got a eyeful of the offerings as we drove through town.
The campground was not large and built on a hillside with campsites carved into the hillside. Some campsites backed up to steep grades that would make me nervous backing into them. Ours was tiny gravel pad that we had to back up a hill to reach it. But once we got set up, it was pretty comfortable. We did not spend much time there and never even had a campfire the whole time. Buddy did enjoy sitting outside and watching the other campers and the occasional dog. As usual, Buddy and I went for walks every day around the campground. The campground offered cabins for rent too. Some of the cabins looked pretty elaborate, more like summer homes, but I never got to see the insides of any of them.
Roaring Fork
Our first adventure was driving the Roaring Fork motor trail. This is a single lane, one way asphalt road that loops from Gatlinburg into the park and back again. As you would expect, using a map, I went to the wrong end of the loop (the one coming out) and we had to work our way through Gatlinburg to the other end of town to get to the entry. Gatlinburg is also a zoo stuffed with tourists and tourist venues and lots and lots of traffic. It was here that I began to get annoyed by the lack of good signage that would help me find the road I was looking for. We did find the entry and did the loop. If you like trees and mountains, the park offers lots of both and the trail offers lots of overlooks and there were a few of the old mountain farms that you could stop and visit. It is hard to imagine how anyone could have a farm up there with the rocky soil and steep slopes, but they did.
Clingmans Dome
The two lane asphalt Highway 441 runs from Tennessee right over the Smoky Mountains into the Cherokee land on the other side in North Carolina. Because the land used to create the Great Smoky Mountain National Park was donated, it included a stipulation that all the roads would be accessed for free, meaning you don’t need a National Park pass to visit the Smoky Mountains. You do, however, need a pass to park anywhere in the Park. They do accept handicap parking permits, so we never had to buy a parking permit.
The drive up to Newfound Gap was beautiful. Most of the roadwork had been done years ago by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) after the park was established in 1934. There are lots of steep climbs and tight turns, including a loop where the road crosses itself as it climbs. The Corps claimed it added the loop to use up some extra road they had left over. There is a stop at the Gap where they have a plaque place there by President Franklin Roosevelt at the inauguration of the Park. The Appalachian Trail passes by that spot, headed up to Clingmans Dome. We walked a few feet of the trail just to say we had done it. Newfound Gap is also at the State Line between Tennessee and North Carolina. About half the Park is in each state, split along the ridge of the mountains.
Just past Newfound Gap, a side road continues to climb and goes up to Clingmans Dome. Its name in Cherokee is Kuwahi or Kuwohi, meaning “mulberry place.” At an elevation of 6,643 feet (2,025 m), it is the highest mountain in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the highest point in the state of Tennessee, and the highest point along the 2,192-mile (3,528 km) Appalachian Trail. It is also the third highest point in mainland Eastern North America, after Mount Mitchell (6,684 feet or 2,037 metres) and Mount Craig (6,647 feet or 2,026 metres). We were mountain climbing.
As luck would have it, it started to rain about the time we got to Clingmans Dome. We were, in fact, within the clouds themselves, so the view was mostly just white vapor. Linda stayed in the car, but I took one of the umbrellas and walked up the half mile of asphalt trail up to the top of the viewing tower at the top of the mountain. It was a steep walk so I was quite winded when I reached the top. Nothing to see be the inside of the clouds and rain. However, on the way down one of the visitors spotted a tiny salamander crossing the asphalt. If you looked carefully, there were several salamanders crossing. We tried not to step on them.
Hikers
An interesting thing happened when I reached the bottom of the trail from the tower. A couple of hikers with huge backpacks in their rain gear huddled against the wind and rain approached me. The asked if I would be willing to give them a ride back down the mountain to their car. They looked quite pitiful. I warned them that they would have to share the back seat with my dog and I would have to ask Linda first. When I brought the idea up with Linda, she was not interested, since we had planned to continue on to Cherokee, but when she saw them standing in the rain, she agreed. We packed their stuff in the back of the Tahoe and started back down to the Tennessee side.
The two were an uncle and nephew from Illinois on a five day adventure hike. However, after the first day the uncle realized that he would not be able to take another day of hiking up and down through the mountains, and then it started to rain and they decided to bail entirely. However, they had been dropped off and their car was back at the bottom where they expected to end their hike. They couldn’t get any signal for their phone and no one at the Park had any ideas of what they should do. They thanked us profusely for taking them on. So down the mountain we went with Buddy quietly sitting between them.
On the way down they told us their story and as we went down the sky cleared some and we made multiple stops to admire the scenery and take pictures. The uncle did wood working and made guitars. He showed me a picture of one. He says he usually ends up just keeping them. I had not realized that their car was actually in Tremont down another road off Highway 441 which headed for Cades Cove, so the trip took much longer than I expected and took us far from our campsite. However, the Little River Road to Cades Cove was even more spectacular than the trip up to Clingmans Dome, running along a spectacular mountain stream with short tunnels cut right into the mountain side. The tunnels were originally too small for modern vehicles, but rather than remove the wonderful CCC stone work, when they enlarged the openings they lowered the roadway instead. We finally reached Tremont and they offered money, which I refused. I did give them my email address and encouraged them to check out the Six Foot Poles. We took a short cut out of the Park to Townsend and back to Pigeon Forge on Highway 321 to get back to our camp site.
Dollywood
Dollywood is an amusement park right outside of Pigeon Forge. What can you say about Dollywood? The whole thing is nestled on a hillside, so the paths do a lot of going up and up and then down and down. It has several coasters, but we didn’t try any of them. The only ride we took was on their steam locomotive which runs through the park on elevated rails and loops back to where you started. It was a lot of fun with all the steam and coal ash. There was lots of really good music at various times and locations, so we tried to catch as many of those as we could. The place was all decorated for Fall and Halloween with thousands and thousands of real and not-so-real pumpkins. We saw a musical theater presentation about a nostalgic look at music from the 50’s to the present that was really quite impressive, with lots of singing, dancing and costumes. Dollywood was off season, so it shut down early (6 pm), but by then we were ready to go back to camp.
Horseback riding
At the edge of Cades Cove they have a horseback riding franchise. Linda really wanted to try getting back on a horse, so we did. They had a platform for mounting, but I still needed to help get Linda’s leg over the saddle to get on. Linda’s horse was a Belgian draft horse named Billie. I rode Millie, a Percheron paint cross. It was a typical nose-to-tail guided ride, but we got to cross a small stream and wander through the forest for an hour or so. We were both pretty tired after the experience and we ended up back at our campsite smelling of horse.
Cades Cove
Cades Cove is a hollow (or holler), which is a valley between mountains. This one is quite large and was farmed before the Park took it. The residents were offered an opportunity to live on their property until they died, but most ended up leaving. Many of the buildings from their properties were kept as examples of mountain life but most of the farm land is being managed to return to a more wild state. The Cove has a one way asphalt road that runs around the perimeter of the Cove with stops where there are buildings and overlooks. It was there that we finally got to see a family of bears wandering near the roadway. Of course everyone stopped to take pictures. We did see turkeys here and there, but no elk or deer that we are told live in the park.
Cherokee
We decided to make the trip all the way across the Smoky Mountains to a small town on the other side called Cherokee on Cherokee land. It was quite a bit of driving all the way up to Newfound Gap and then downshifting all the way down the other side. There were lots of places to view the beautiful landscapes. We stopped at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center on the far side and Linda wandered through the farm buildings while I took Buddy down the Oconaluftee River Trail (Buddy was not allowed on the farm). Some people on the trail claimed that there were some elk resting in the woods, but Buddy and I didn’t get far enough to see them. Elk were eliminated from the area long ago, but have recently been reintroduced and now thrive there. There were signs warning visitors to keep clear of the elk since they can be dangerous.
The town of Cherokee was filled with shops of native American crafts and souvenirs. We were not interested in buying anything, but we did stop in a restaurant and had “Indian Tacos” for lunch. We sat on the outside deck of the restaurant and were able to bring Buddy with us. On the way back, we went back up to Clingmans Dome, hoping for better viewing. It was quite a bit better, with some clouds but magnificent views. I did not, however, make the walk back up the half mile to the tower. We took the route back that took us through Gatlinburg so we could get a good look at the town. Lots of shops, restaurants and tourists. We did not stop there.
Pigeon Forge
The longer we stayed in Pigeon Forge, the more classic cars seemed to arrive. It was a spectacular selection of the cars of America. I was particularly impressed by the number of Chevy Bel Aire cars of various years and types, but there were lots of other cars as well. I was surprised to see so few Cadillac restorations. We did not stop to see them, but it was impossible to miss them as you worked your way back and forth through town.
I do want to complain about the signage in the Smoky Mountains Park area. The roads around there are crazy complicated. Roads seem to sporadically appear and disappear. I certainly understand that you have to build them where you can, but with proper signs, you should be able to figure out how to get around. However, this is not the case.
For example, coming out of Gatlinburg, I wanted to go North to Pigeon Forge. I came to Highway 321, but I needed to take Highway 321 South (which travels North to Pigeon Forge), which by the way is also labeled Highway 441 North. Imagine a road labeled North and South at the same time. Confused yet? There were no signs in Gatlinburg directing you how to get to Pigeon Forge from there.
Coming out of Dollywood, I was on Dollywood Lane, which should take me back to Highway 441. I saw a sign saying I had to turn left to get on Dollywood Lane, so I did. That was not the right road. The one I was originally on actually did lead back to Highway 441 and it is labeled as Dollywood Lane there. So what was that other Dollywood Lane? I never figured that out.
In general, there were too few signs warning you that you needed to make a turn to get to where you wanted to go or at least to remind you that you are on the right road to get there. I had difficulty finding the entrance to the Roaring Fork motor trail when I was in Gatlinburg. There was no sign on the main road telling you to turn onto another road in order to get to the entrance. I imagine that many of the visitors there for the first time get lost quite a bit around there.
Back to Kentucky
When we finally left Pigeon Forge, we drove up through Sevierville to Highway 40, which is apparently the more appropriate way to get into and out of Pigeon Forge, since it was all wide multi-lane roads the whole way. Back in Kentucky, we camped back at the Kentucky Horse Park. This time there was a gathering of Airstream campers. There were dozens of them there of all different styles. We didn’t go back to the horse park and just left in the morning for Ann Arbor rather than stay another day, as we had originally planned.
As luck would have it, on the way back, the exit from I-75 to US-23 (the one you use to get to Ann Arbor) was closed when we got there (with no warning) and we had to take I-75 into Toledo and take I-475 back to US-23. Very annoying after a long drive, but it went smoothly.
