Easter Weekend

Easter weekend Kris and I headed to Gatlinburg, TN. We rented a cabin just out side of town and the Smokey Mountain National Park. This park is the most visited National Park in the US. However, we discovered it is more a factor of location and population density, paired with the fact there are more amusement parks and commercial entertainment not even a 5 minute drive outside of the park, that give it the claim as most visited. The city of Gatlinburg is home to 3800 people, but on any given night can sleep 200,000+. 5 minutes away from there is Pigeon Forge, the home of Dollywood, several more theme parks, and more Put-Put Golf courses than I have seen in my whole life!

This is from the viewpoint of Clingman's Dome. It is 6,643 feet, the highest point in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park, the highest point in Tennessee, and the second highest point east of the Mississippi. My friend Hillary reminded be that this is approximately the same elevation as Palomar Mtn. near San Diego where we met at the camp that we worked at. Just for a fun fact, Mt. Mitchell in North Carolina is the highest point east of the Mississippi. Fun Fact #2 of the day is Tennessee and Mississippi are the only 2 states that have 3 pairs of duplicate letters in there name. Clingman's Dome sits right on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, I am actually standing in North Carolina from where this picture was taken. In the background is Mt. Leconte, which is probably the most visible peak from the surrounding areas. It was a great view, but it was cold up there!

Saturday morning we woke up to more cold weather and snow. This is the view down the hill from the balcony of our cabin.

The Grist Mill at Cade's Cove in the park... There is an 11 mile loop around Cade's Cover where there are preserved cabins, churches, this grist mill, and other structures from the 1860s (I think that's the right year, I lost that brochure). Cade's Cove was a fairly level valley where there were approximately 2500 settlers in the 1800s. It was a gorgeous drive, but even on a quiet weekend, we were reminded that this is the most visited park in the US. We were behind a solid line of traffic traveling about 10-15mph. It did give us plenty of time to take in all the scenery, deer, and wild turkey. We are just more used to traffic jams being caused by buffalo than other vehicles in national parks. For those of you that didn't know already, my Dad worked in Yellowstone for 3 years, so we are a little biased.


We got off the road for awhile and hiked into Laurel Falls. I was a nice mile and a half hike into see the falls with great views of all mountains around us. It had warmed up to about 30 degrees by then. What happened to that 85 degree weather we had a week ago?

Fun Fact #3-There are at least 30 different species of salamanders in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This gives the Smokies the distinction of having the most diverse salamander population anywhere in the world and has earned the park the nickname “Salamander Capital of the World.”