Smokey Mountains

Craggy Gardens

Today we completed the last of the 479 mile Blue RidgeParkway. I had been worried that I would be holding up traffic, but in the end, I only had to let cars pass five times in the last 3 days.  There were more cars on the road, especially as we approached Ashville. We also went through 23 of the 26 tunnels on the parkway. We stopped at Craggy Gardens which was at 5600 feet. Here the sides of the road were covered with Mountain Laurel and Rhododendrons. At this elevation, quite a few were still in bloom, even though their season is typically April through June.  We descended several thousand feet, then on to the highest point Richland Balsam at a little over 6000 feet.  Back down again to reach the entry to Smokey Mountain National Park, we could smell our brakes, so it was a good time to stop at the Visitor Center. . The ascent over the Appalachians in the park was anti-climactic after the Blue Ridge Parkway. The only real viewpoint was right at the top, and the parking was overflowing there so we didn’t get to stop. Our camp tonight is in Elkmont campground. We then took the car to Cade’s Cove. This was the site of a small mountain community which started in the early 1800’s until the park was created in the 1930’s. Several homestead cabins are maintained as well as the community churches. (An interesting side light: the churches didn’t operate during the civil war, because of the feuds between those who favored the confederacy and the union.) We encountered lots of creeping cars on this one way loop. Some were scared by the steepness of the road in places, and others would stop in the middle of the road to watch a deer or a turkey, oblivious of the line of cars behind them.

Cantilevered Barn, Cade's Cove