We left Atlanta with much anticipation as we were both very excited about our visit to the Great Smoky Mountains and our first time in the Appalachians. We arrived at the Happy Holiday Campground and were very pleasantly surprised. It is a beautiful place with a river and a pond, situated right at the base of the mountains and since it has only just re-opened from winter there are only a handful of people there. We were in RV heaven. As we check-in we find out that highway 441 the thorough-fare from Cherokee to Gatlinburg, TN has been closed for four months due to a landslide back in January. This drive was recommended to us by my cousin Mark as one of the most beautiful drives in America and the reason we chose this destination! Oh well it is such a beautiful spot we both consider just staying in Cherokee and forgetting about our move to Panama – just kidding sort of.
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| Happy Holiday Campground |
Trout stocked river right behind Suni!
Eastearn Bluebird that loved our truck.
There is so much to do and see it is hard to decide what to
do first. We drive to the south side visitor
center and pick up pamphlets on the geology of the area (guess who is so
excited), day hikes and the map for alternate routes to Gatlinburg. We figure we will just drive both sides of
the road up to the landslide and see 90% of it.
They only have two trails open to dogs – one at each visitor center so
we took the dogs on a beautiful 3.5 mile hike along the Oconaluftee River. Then we drove highway 441 as far as they
would let us. All of the trees were
starting to bloom with new leaves in every shade of green imaginable and the
red buds and dogwoods were popping with vibrant colors. Thanks Mark!
See why they're called the Smoky Mountains
We use our next day to drive the long way around to
Gatlinburg, TN and see the other side of highway 441. Gatlinburg is a very tourist oriented town
with all of the usual shops and attractions.
It was crawling with people but did have a lot of personality. We took the dogs on the other hike which was
great once we got past all of the park headquarters' buildings and maintenance
equipment. There were remnants of old
logging houses along the Little Pigeon River.
We then drove to the highest point in the Smokies forgetting once again
to bring jackets and it was freezing at the 6643 ft. elevation. But we were really there to see some
metamorphosed sandstone and conglomerates that had beautiful purple quartz
pebbles in it. They were also streaked
through with fantastic white quartz dikes (now, now, now…stop that). The metamorphism occurred due to the heat
created during plate convergence/uplifting of the Smoky Mts. Geologists have named about 20 different
“formations” of rocks in the Great Smoky Mts., lots of really cool rocks
everywhere. I guess you can tell Peg
wrote that section! We also made a stop
at an entrance to the Appalachian Trail.
We had hoped to hike a section, but we were not prepared for the cold
and the dogs were not allowed so we will have to try again somewhere between
here and Maine.
Beautiful every way you look
I don't look ready for the Appalachian Trail
.
Remnants of a logger's house
The next day was very
stormy so we decided to use it for chores and shopping. The newest revelation in our RV adventures is
the value of Wal-Mart. This is a store I
used to avoid at all costs. Now I drive
30 miles to the nearest one so I can get my haircut, change the oil in my truck
and stock up on $3 wine and $5 DVD's! Wonders never
cease, this is life on a budget. This Wal-Mart
happened to be in a town called Sylva – what a cute town. We had trouble finding the Wal-Mart because
it turns out Nadine (our GPS) doesn’t work very well in the mountains. She doesn’t know up from down. In this case it was serendipitous because we
really enjoyed being lost in Sylva.
We decided to make the drive to Chimney Rock State Park via
the Blue Ridge Parkway. We knew we were
taking the long way, but it was worth it.
What an amazing drive. They
literally cut this road through all of the mountains. There are these tunnels with signs telling
you to turn your lights on. Well the BAT’s
lights usually come on automatically so I didn’t worry about it. Let me tell you they do not come on fast
enough and it was pitch black inside these tunnels. SCARY! I came to a full stop in the tunnel because I could not see a thing. This was in an attempt to turn my lights on. Apparently I did not communicate this fast enough to Peg who was screaming like her life was over. I think I heard "holy shit, is anyone behind you"? No, there was not and it was all under control, but you know what, the passenger does not always know that. Peg has almost killed me a hundred times! :) Pay back is a bitch. :)
I did turn on my lights after that.
We could not help but to notice that many trees at all elevations
appeared to be dead or dying. We were
there at “bloom out” time so everyone should have been showing some color. Being the inquisitive types that we are…inquiring
minds must know “what the hell is happening to all the trees?” Turns out, there is a problem. At the highest elevations the Fraser Firs are
being destroyed by an exotic insect from Europe. The pesky Balsam Woolly Adelgid came to North
America on nursery stock. In 45 years it
has killed most mature Fraser Firs in the park, once the home to 75% of all
Fraser Firs in the world. Then at about
3,000 feet the Hemlock Forest is being destroyed by the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid
which is native to China and Japan. They
are releasing a natural predator beetle that feeds only on the Adelgid and will
hopefully help save a portion of the forest.
This beetle does not like the Balsam Woolly Adelgid unfortunately. But wait…there’s more! At ground level the Pine and Oak Forest is
being destroyed by the Southern Pine Beetle.
If fire is suppressed, the pine beetles increase and impacts of their
predation multiply. 
Scary pitch black tunnel
Three hours later we finally arrived at Chimney Rock. We were really excited because the glossy
propaganda said…”We love dogs so bring yours to the park”. Say no more to us, we are on our way. There is a 404 foot waterfall and an elevator
that takes you to the top. It is a 535
million year old monolith of diorite granite; with miles of trails all
ecologically and geologically diverse.
We couldn’t wait! We arrive,
ready to go. CLOSED! Working on roads within the park and gee,
they just are not quite finished. The
park ranger was nice enough to tell us about a small hiking area on old logging
trails down the road so we did squeeze in a little hike. We also loved the town of Chimney Rock. It sits on a river with great views of “The
Rock”.
View of Chimney Rock from outside the park
I was very excited to
see Asheville after our friends the Crouch’s had told us how much they loved
it. Since we only had one day, we
decided to take yet another trolley tour.
We think it is the best way to see a lot in a short amount of time. This one took us through all of the old
neighborhoods, the Grove Inn area, Biltmore Village and the River Arts
District. It is a great city with
musicians playing on street corners, old buildings being revitalized and very
dog friendly. The guide told us that
Asheville was one of the few cities that didn’t default on their debts from the
depression. They tightened their belts
and kept the city budget under control.
This slowed their growth, but it actually saved all of the historic
buildings because the city didn’t spend the money to tear down and
rebuild. So now they make it a practice
of recycling old buildings into new purposes.
It is a great city with a very Austin vibe – their motto is “Altitude
not Attitude”. We had wanted to see the
Biltmore, but it was $60 per person to tour and this was definitely not in the
budget! After the trolley tour we walked
downtown and tasted some local beers out on a patio. I know I say this a lot, but another great day.
We had set aside the last day as a dog day
which means finding hikes where they are allowed. There were some beautiful trails along the
Blue Ridge Parkway so we made our way back up there to spend our last day in
the woods. As we drove the clouds
starting rolling in and a few raindrops hit the windshield much to our surprise
as the weather man said it was supposed to be beautiful. We pulled into a visitor center lot and the
storm clouds were literally rolling over the top of the mountains, into the
parking lot and down into the valley with lightening all around us. It was the coolest weather phenomena I have
ever seen, but needless to say not hiking weather. We drove back down the parkway and returned
to the dog friendly hike in the Smokies.
Storm blowing in - crazy rain.
Coming soon… Mayberry, NC – to see Andy, Opie and Aunt Bee
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