The Smokes Day Two Continued continues where The Abrams Falls Hike left off
The next stop was the John C Cable Grist Mill. Today the park operates the cable mill as an historical exhibit.
Of course everyone was visiting the loop at the same time so I had to park a good distance away. Took many photos of the mill at several different angles but there was one angle I could not capture because the placement of the sun.
Before I left, I stopped in the store and picked up jars of both apple and pumpkin butter. I am going to enjoy those. My feet hurt too much to stop at the other stops on the loop so I headed back to the campground where I promptly changed into my sneakers. One of the reasons my feet hurt so much was due to the constant pressing the clutch because traffic was so heavy. I took a few shots of my campsite.
Around 4pm I headed out to Townsend to get dinner. On the way I stopped at least 1/2 dozen overlooks where I climbed down to the edge of the river and took both long exposure and HDR photos. I also was finally able to shoot the Great Smoky Mountain National Park sign. I stopped and picked up some fudge (peanut butter chocolate and cinnamon apple pie) and then went in search of food. I stopped at the first place I saw – Pizza Hut where I ordered a personal pepperoni pan pizza. I had a text conversation with Tim while I waited for the pizza to be ready.
After dinner I headed back into the park and stopped at a few more roadside parking areas and took more photos. I also shot but sides of a small tunnel. Stupidly, I headed back to the Cades Cove Loop hoping to get the one angle of the grist mill but unfortunately it was closed. I probably could have gotten the photos but decided to come back in the morning. The only good thing about this third time through the loop was that I got several shots of some bucks.
I am now sitting at the picnic table at my campsite writing this blog post by flashlight. It’s going to be another chilly night.