Great Smoky Mountains National Park

WOW!

Pulled in last night and it was actually chilly last night and I woke up this morning temps in low 60’s and fog, dramatically nice change.

Spent the day in the park, the first half driving around and enjoying the trees making green alleys of the roads and keeping everything cool, there are lots of butterflies out and they add to the beauty. Also lots and lots of motorcycles and I understand why, cool and shaded as I said and the roads are windy and the speed limits are between 35 and 45, perfect for touring. The park is long running West to East but the roads seem to run North to South, makes going from one site to the next a challenge and sometimes a long drive. I went in on the mid-southern end and drove up to a place called Newfound Gap, elevation 5046, and there I parked and spent most of the afternoon hiking the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian Trail runs from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Mount Katahdin in Maine, it is 2,178 miles long; I didn’t do it all but I’ll give it hell tomorrow.

One thing I noticed when I was in the part was a lot of dying trees and when I asked a Ranger about it he told me that the Parks Hemlock trees were being attacked by a non-native insect called the Woolly Adelgid. They are fighting it but right now it seems to be mostly a holding effort.

After hiking and since I was only 15-miles away and had heard about it since I was in Supply Corps School in Athens GA in 1964 I drove over to Gatlinburg TN and what a waste. Gatlinburg was the consummate tourist trap with lots and lots of tourists and very slow-moving and crowded streets; if you were thing about visiting, don’t.