Smokies Spring 2018 Trip Part 2

Smokies Spring 2018 Trip Part 2 is our first full day in the Smokies.  It was also Tim’s 50th Birthday.  After breakfast, our first stop was Cades Cove.  Even though I’ve been there too many times too count, it never gets old.  My first trip I camped in the Cades Cove and did not leave.  The only stop on the loop was at the John Cable Grist Mill.  All of us took photos, I used Tim’s infrared camera for a few photos.  We went shopping in the Cades Cove store because you can never have enough souvenirs.  I’m sure mine were bear related.  I honestly don’t remember what I bought. 

Foothills Parkway was the next stop so we could scout the area for spots for Tuesday’s sunrise.  After checking out a couple of overlooks, we headed back toward the park but stopped at the Applewood Valley Mountain Village.  The first shop was the general store.  Tim picked up two bags of coffee, I tried the fudge which was very good but truthfully have you ever had bad fudge? We then headed over to the Mountain Store. This is where I picked up Tim’s birthday present but more importantly, I fell in love with a bear table, the base was a bear lying on its back holding the glass table with its paws. Unfortunately it cost $400 so needless to say, it did not come home with me.

The Animals of Cades Cove

Monday afternoon was spent shooting along the river.  Due to road construction, we decided to head to Townsend by way of Rich Mountain Road in Cades Cove Loop instead of waiting in traffic which turned out to be a great decision.  When we got on the Loop, about 30 horses were out in the field.  I pulled over onto Sparks Lane, grabbed my camera and started shooting. Only problem was that I parked next to a post so Tim was trapped in the car.  Oops.  Sorry Tim.  After moving the car, I went back to shooting. I took probably 600 photos. I love horses. 

Another treat was on Rich Mountain Road itself.  As we are driving along the gravel path where my car was getting dirtier and dirtier, when I pulled around a curve, a bear was on the side of the road.  Due to the smaller size, I am sure it was a sow. I grabbed my phone and started to take photos. Tim decided to get out and get his camera out of my trunk.  During that time, she decided to come investigate my car, which in turn brought TIm back to the car quickly.  She walked toward my door but stopped about 4 feet away and then went back to the other side of the road. After a few minutes I was feeling brave so I got out of the car, grabbed my camera and took a few shots.  The guys stayed in the car.  I tend to get too close to wildlife, I do the same thing with the alligators in Myrtle Beach.

I had to stop taking photos of the bear due to Tim’s hunger, otherwise, I would have stayed there for a few hours.  Trust me, it has happened before.  See my Bears Bears and More Bears Blog Post from October.  We ate at Bennett’s BBQ for Tim’s Birthday dinner.   All in all, it was a very good day.

Smokies Spring 2018 Trip Part 1

Smokies Spring 2018 Trip Part 1 starts at 6am Sunday morning when I headed out. This trip was to celebrate Tim’s 50th Birthday. Tim’s friend Joe joined us.  We scheduled to meet at Sugarland’s Visitor Center.  This was my 4th trip to the Smokies, Tim’s 2nd and Joe’s 1st.  Matter of fact, this was also my 4th trip in a year and a half.  Great Smoky Mountains National Park is my second favorite National Park but my favorite that is within driving distance. Yosemite National Park will always be my favorite national park but given its on the West Coast, its a little too far to drive.

I arrived at Sugarlands around 11:30 and even though my drive was twice as long since Tim and Joe stayed in Danville, Kentucky on Saturday night, I beat them by about half an hour.  The original plan to stay in Lexington, Kentucky but the Land Rover Kentucky Three Day Event was going on at Kentucky Horse Park and there wasn’t a hotel room to be found.  

Sugarlands Visitor Center

Not surprising, I went shopping while I waited from them.  I bought a small book about the park (the first of MANY souvenirs) and renewed my subscription to Friends of the Smokies which had expired two days prior. They still hadn’t arrived when I finished shopping and since it was a gorgeous day I waited on the benches outside. They finally arrived.  First stop was Gatlinburg for lunch. We ended eating at the Park Grill. I had a pulled pork sandwich with corn on the cob and fries. I did up buying a bottle of barbecue sauce that we would make use of later in the week.

Leaving Tim’s car in a parking lot so we use one car, we headed Into the Park.  We were originally planning on heading to Cades Cove but traffic was heavy due to road construction in a few places. Joe had somewhat of a crisis which will remain an inside joke but let’s just say that Tim and I ribbed him mercilessly during the rest of the trip.

Next stop was Cabins USA office in Sevierville to check in.  According to Tim’s GPS, which was his phone, head to the office by way of Dollywood which would be a common occurrence throughout the week. My phone GPS took the most direct way.  Ironically, both Tim and I have the iPhone X.  The roads up the mountain to the cabin was BRUTAL especially when you drive a manual transmission AND when you are deathly afraid of heights but I survived.  I took the Master bedroom on the top floor and the guys took the two bedrooms on the lowest floor.

Amazingly enough, I did not take any photos on the first day.

 Fall in the Smokies Part 5 is the second part of my last full day in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Early afternoon I headed to Tremont Road to try to make the 8.3 mile round trip hike to Indian Flat Falls. To get to the Falls, you hike the Middle Prong Trail which some considering the best hike in the Smokies.  It passes three major waterfalls (Lower Lynn Camp Falls, Lynn Camp Falls and Indian Flat Falls).

From the parking lot, you cross a metal footbridge over Lynn Camp Prong to the what appears to be an old gravel road but was a railroad bed.  The hike itself would not be bad if not for the fact that two days earlier I had already done 21k and equivalent of 112 floors plus the Grotto Falls hike that morning so my body was still a little sore. Not to mention carrying 2 cameras, 3 lenses and a tripod.

Just before the sharp bend in the trail I came to a bench that looked over Lower Lynn Camp Falls which is a 35 foot multi tiered waterfall.  Unfortunately as this was mid day, the sunlight was quite harsh on the top half of the falls.  I took several photos and then continued on my way.  

The next waterfall I came too was the Lynn Camp Falls which is another multi tiered waterfalls.  

As I was hiking along the path, a nice gentlemen let me know that I was only about 100 yards from where an old Cadillac was left.  I found the small path and took several photos at different angles.  

By this time I was fighting both exhaustion/soreness and sunset.  I did not want to be on this path after the sun went down as it has a lot of rocks along it and I have enough trouble when I can see them.  I made it about 3.1 of the 4.3 miles before I decided to turn around. I took some photos of the cascades river before heading back.  I was so tired when I got to Lower Lynn Camp Falls that I didn’t even bother to take my camera out of my bag.  

It was too late to head to Newfound gap for sunset when I got back to my car so I headed back to the hotel.  I picked up Zaxby’s and took back to my hotel. 

I was originally planning on stopping at Mouse Creek Falls on my way home on Friday but as I had 27,208 steps, 13.5 miles and 34 floors, I decided to just head straight home.  The only problem with that was that home is due East so part of the drive, I was heading directly toward the sun.

My three day totals were 57,816 steps, 25.2 miles and 165 flights.  I got quite the workout.

 Fall in the Smokies Part 4 is my last full day in the Park.

I was still riding high from all the bear photos that I had taken the day before.  I decided to head to Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail and do the Grotto Falls hike.  Cool thing about this Falls is it is the only Falls in Great Smoky Mountains National Park that you can go behind. It is a very popular hike so like Alum Cave Bluff, if you want to find a parking space, it is best to get there early.  Unfortunately Tim didn’t join me on this trip so I had to drive the Motor Trail.  Part of the road wreaks havoc with my intense fear of heights. The parking lot was almost full when I arrived just before sunrise.

I remembered to bring water on this hike but yet again I forgot to grab my sunglasses.  Thankfully this hike is not as steep or as long as the Alum Cave Bluffs hike. Grotto Falls is 2.6 miles round trip with an elevation gain of only 585 feet.  You can continue up the path to Mount Le Conte but I just did the Grotto Falls Hike. I lucked out as I arrived at the Falls, three people were getting ready to leave and there wasn’t any one else around.  I went over to the opposite side of the Falls and took quite a few photos and a time lapse with my cellphone.  

I took a few photos almost underneath the Falls.  As I was taking some photos back on the trail side, a couple of people arrived.  Amazingly enough, I was alone for all of my close up photos of the Falls.  It was awesome. I am so not a people person and its more work to take people out of the photos.  This was so much better.  

I took a few photos on the hike back to the car.  Unfortunately the rivers were much lower than they were during my April visit.  Heading back to the park through downtown Gatlinburg is always fun during the height of peak season. I made a quick stop at Sugarlands Visitor center to pick up a few souvenirs including a tee shirt so now I have a shirt from each of my trips. 

Next stop was Cades Cove for lunch before heading to Tremont Road to try to hike to Indian Flat Falls.  Traffic into Cades Cove was worse than Gatlinburg. I stopped off at the campground store where I had a hot dog and chips for lunch.  I picked up a few more souvenirs and then was on my way to what turned out to be the last hike of my trip.  

Like the other two days, I will continue the adventure in the next blog post.  

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Bears Bears and More Bears 

My second full day in Great Smoky Mountain National Park was the highlight of my visit because it was the day I finally saw bears.  And boy did I see them, I saw 8 different bears before the day was over. As my friend Tim can attest to, one of my goals when visiting the Smokies is to get a photo of a bear.  Tough to do when you don’t see any which was the case of my first two visits.  This trip more than made up for it.  

The first bear I saw was on my way into Cades Cove early Wednesday morning.  The male bear was on the side of the road foraging for food.  Unfortunately since it was before sunrise and still dark out, the photos that I took did not turn out too well.

The next bear I saw moved too fast so I wasn’t able to get any photos. 

I was on the Cades Cove Loop when I finally was able to get some bear photos that actually turned out which is the first photo on the slideshow.  I hung around him for about an hour taking photos.  He was too busy looking for berries and acorns to care about the 10-20 of us taking his photo.  I’m guessing the Smoky Mountain Bears are used to people shooting (with cameras) them.  

After shooting him, I started to head out of the park for an appointment when I heard about a mama and her two cubs. I parked the car and headed into the woods.  Since nothing is more dangerous than a mother protecting her cubs, I stayed further away from them then I did of the other bears I saw. Though in all fairness, I was still closer than the NPS recommended 50 yards.    The second photo in slideshow is mama up a tree and the fourth is one of her cubs.  

The next bear I saw was in about the same spot as the first bear but since I had an appointment, I didn’t stop to take photos.

After my side trip to Pigeon Forge, I headed back to Cades Cove where the last bear I saw was causing a traffic jam on the road to the Cove.  I must have spent an hour taking photos and of the about 800 photos I took that day, 400 of them are of him.  Third and and sixth photo is of that bear.  He was not far off the road and didn’t care that he was causing quite a stir among the park visitors.  He stayed in the area for at least an hour eating acorns.  He was still there when I left.  

As you can see in the photo, my souvenirs from this trip (and that is not even all of them) have a definite theme.  This trip was definitely Bears Bears and More Bears.  

 Fall in the Smokies Part 3 continues on Wednesday.  It follows Fall in the Smokies Part 1 and Fall in the Smokies Part 2

The best part of this day will be the next blog post, this post is just an overview of the day.  The original plan was to meet up with my Facebook friend April Bryant in Cades Cove but a miscommunication prevented that.  Since we were scheduled to meet until 10am, I headed into the park early to get some photos of the John Cable Grist Mill hoping that it would be surrounded by fall colors. It was not, Cades Cove was still very green but I still took some photos.  

I then got delayed heading out of Cades Cove to head to the Old Mill in Pigeon Forge to meet April.  It turns out when she suggested meeting at the Old Mill, she meant the Cable Mill in Cades Cove and not the actual Old Mill.  I did take some photos of the Mill before heading back into the park.

My second time through Cades Cove was so I could turn up Rich Mountain Road to photograph the Cove from side of the mountain. You can see one of the Cove’s white churches from the pull off. I had hoped to get the Cove with rich fall colors but alas Mother Nature had to be her sadistic self and most of the valley was quite green.  The road is one way and drops you back out in Townsend.  Since traffic getting into Cades Cove had been so bad and the road was much longer than I expected, it was too late for me to head to Newfound Gap to take some sunset photos. 

I stopped at Fuddruckers for dinner and then headed back to the hotel to do a little bit of editing before heading to bed.  

 Fall in the Smokies Part 2 continues my first full day where Fall in the Smokies Part 1 left off.

I headed back into the park and after a brief stop at Sugarlands Visitor Center, I headed up Tremont road to the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont to hike to Spruce Flat Falls. The somewhat little-known trail is only a 2.0 mile roundtrip but it is of moderate difficulty and includes some steep, rocky sections. You park at the Institute and then head up the trail.  The trail is very narrow, nonexistent in some places and not well maintained. Between this hike and the hike to Alum Cave Bluffs, my fear of heights was getting quite the workout.  The last part of the trail to the fall is a steep decent to the falls.  Two boys were sitting on the trail blocking the path. I finally made it to the falls, found a good spot but not before slipping on the rocks trying to get down to the spot. I set up my camera and then had to wait patiently for people to get out of the way.  You could hike up to the middle of the falls and cross over but after the hike that morning and knowing I still had to hike back, I decided against it. 

One particular young man decided to stand on a rock right in the middle of of the falls blocking my view. I was not happy because he stood there talking to what I assume is his girlfriend for at least 5 minutes with no consideration for the other people at the falls.  Finally the group of students from the Institute left and the guy and his girlfriend finally got out of the way so I was able to take my photos.  

I headed back to the car. I apparently did not turn where I was supposed to so instead of going on the narrowest part of the trail, I ended up hiking down some of the buildings at the Institute and walked up the road to where my car was.  I was originally going to head over to Newfound Gap for sunset photos but I was just too tired and sore.

I headed back to the hotel where I had to check in again. Monday night was a different reservation that I had made months after the initial Tuesday-Friday reservation and even though I booked the king size bed room for both reservations, I had a different room number.  While my photos were uploading in my computer, I walked over to the Diner next door for dinner. Since I had forgotten my reading glasses, I got an order of potato skins to go and headed back to the hotel.  I edited a few of the photos, wrote the first blog post and then got ready for bed.  

According to my pedometer, at the end of the day I had 22,443 steps, 8.6 miles and the equivalent of 112 flights of steps. All from two hikes.  Gotta love elevation hikes. No wonder I was so tired.