great smoky mountain National park

We visited the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and highly recommend it!

We started on a drive through Cade’s Cove, an 11-mile loop drive through a valley where various settlers lived in the 1800’s- early 1900’s, and it is popular! They say to plan 2-3 hours, and that is correct- patience is a virtue on this drive:

The scenery was worth the traffic- it’s beautiful! Some people see bears and moose, but it was too hot today- we saw a couple wild turkeys:

And a lot of wildflowers-it reminded me of the prairies in the midwest:

One of the old buildings along the drive was this Methodist Church from 1902- note the “foundation” is just 5 little stacks of rocks on each side:

After Cade’s Cove we drove up to Clingman’s Dome- at 6,643 feet it is the highest point in the park, and the third highest point east of the Mississippi River. Once you reach the parking lot you take a STEEP half-mile hike to an observation tower. The views were amazing:

this one is from the parking lot.

This picture from the top of the observation tower shows the border between North Carolina and Tennessee- it’s at the top of the closest peak on the left- you can see that it looks like there is a break in the trees in the form of a line. And it looks like you can see forever! We could see some of a river way below:

This park is America’s most visited National Park, and we think it’s a must-see if you are anywhere near Tennessee or North Carolina! We only did the one hike and the Cade’s Cove drive- there is a lot more here to see, just be prepared for the traffic and the people.