Excited. Beyond excited. Whenever I travel, I try very hard to do something I've never done or go somewhere I've never been. This year, it seems, has been a year of revisiting places and finding new things to do in those areas. I wanted to get to know the places I love better than ever. This September, however, I chucked that sentiment out the window and struck out in a new direction: East. I almost never travel East, and until this point, all of my favorite places are located west of Nebraska. For eight days at the beginning of September, though, I headed East (and a little North) and drove to Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the Tennessee-North Carolina border to spend the week camping, hiking, and otherwise exploring the Smokies. Oh, and I was alone.
My first day in the park was spectacular. I was up before dawn drove to the park in time to watch the sunrise from a pullout on the road as I wound my way up and away from civilization. I headed straight for the area of the park that presented my best chance at seeing wildlife, and arrived at Cade's Cove right at 8am. I started the 11 mile paved loop road immediately, and started seeing deer right off the bat. A little guidebook is provided for a suggested donation fee, and I picked one of those up and attempted to follow along as I joined a line of cars slowly rolling encircling the cove. I decided, however, that my first time at the cove was going to be one that I just drove through, and I'd come back another day to actually follow the guide book and stop along the way.
I don't think Cade's Cove can be described in words, and even the hundreds of pictures I took don't do it justice. Green fields filled with morning mists and dotted with groves of trees stretch across relatively flat ground before meeting the forests where the mountains start rising again. The mists obscure distance and hide the movements of living creatures, even swallowing the tail lights of the cars in front of me. At that early of an hour there were few people in the Cove and it wasn't difficult to pretend that I was alone, until I hit a traffic jam that can only be caused by the sighting of an animal. As I slowly inched forward a herd of deer came into view, contentedly muching on the grasses dripping with dew and completely ignoring the line of cars and amateur photographers along the shoulder of the road. This happened three more times, until I joined the back on the longest jam yet, unable to see why we were stopped up so far back yet growing more excited with every car length I moved forward. There was only a small handful of reasons why so many people would be stopped for so long on the road, and my suspicions were confirmed when I stopped a lady walking past my car: BEAR!!
I tried, really hard, to be patient. I knew the bear was likely not going anywhere fast, that it was probably foraging and would be in the area for a while, but I was so damn excited to see a bear that I was bouncing in my car seat with anticipation. I had been telling everybody for weeks that I was going to see a bear in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and here I was, a grand total of two hours in the park, and I was going to see my first bear of the trip. Slowly, excruciatingly, the bear came into view, lounging in a small clump of bushes and trees and foraging for breakfast. A park ranger was near it, making sure people remained in their cars, allowing a brief stop for pictures before he kept us moving. Finally, I got close enough to take pictures of it, and didn't stop taking photos until I was well past the bear and actually in danger of running off the road due to not paying attention. After I was well past and traffic was flowing normally again, I pulled off the road onto a small shoulder and took a minute. I was so excited I was shaking, and seriously had tears in my eyes. A bear! After only two hours in the park! What other exciting adventures would the whole week hold?!
It took me a little while to calm down after my first bear encounter, but eventually I finished the Cade's Cove loop and continued my drive through the park. I stopped at every single pull out, read every informational sign and stopped at every marked building I could find. I usually try to get to know the park first via car, then when I'm familiar with the roads, hit the trails. Driving over Newfound Gap and gazing in wonder at the Smoky Mountains laid out before me, I knew that this trip wouldn't be the only time I visited the area. That'll be in the future though; at the time, I was more concerned with exploring every single reachable area of the park in eight short days.
Once I reached North Carolina and the visitor's center on the far eastern side of the park, I stopped and chatted with a park ranger about neat drives and the possibility of solitude within the park boundaries. He pointed out a one-way back country mountain road, accessible via a short drive up the Blue Ridge Parkway, that was perfectly passible by all cars and that would almost certainly provide the solitude I was looking for. Feeling a little crowded on the main road of the most-visited national park in the States, on Labor Day, I headed gratefully toward the mountain road, immensely enjoying myself on the winding Parkway and short, paved side road that led to a picnic area, and the mountain road beyond.
It was exactly what I was looking for: I didn't see a single other person, and was able to take my time as I coasted into small forested canyons and cruised up ridges. I could have been the only person at the park, and the surrounding forest muted sounds around me, so that even my car was quieter than normal. Even though it was the second week of September, wildflowers still clung to summer. Pale purple and cheerful yellow seemed to dominate the understory, though if I looked closely I could see bright whites and the most delicate shade of pink. On the horizon, muted green blended the line where the clouds kissed the mountains. I've never been in a place like it. The road itself was mostly dirt, and clearly unmaintained, riddled with giant potholes filled with dirty brown water. It was one of those great "bad" roads that I love so much. I mean, you know you had fun when you splash mud on the windshield of your Toyota Yaris.
I spent well over two hours on that mountain road, absorbing the sounds and smells and feel of the mountain forests. Once I finished and found myself in the bustle of the main park, I decided it was late enough in the day to try visiting Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the park and one of the most popular. As it was after 5pm, the visitor's center on the dome was closed, and that significantly decreased the amount of traffic. I found a parking spot with ease, and scooted up the paved path the half-mile to the observation tower on the crown of the dome. Unfortuately for me, clouds closed in as I made my way to the top, and I was rewarded for my climb by a forest shrouded in mist and absolutely no view. The observation deck, a giant, spiraling concrete ramp ending in a rounded deck high above the tree tops that would have provided an unparalled view on a clear day. Giving it up for a bad job, I left and headed back to my campsite, trying to remember everything that had happened on my first day at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was a day that would definitely be hard to top.
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