We weren’t quite as lucky on the return. The weather degraded significantly, with gray skies and occasional rain, but still surprisingly warm temperatures for late October.
The Park
Rising along the Tennessee/North Carolina border, the Great Smoky Mountains are a subrange of the Appalachian Mountains that contain 292 square miles of old growth forest, constituting the largest such stand east of the Mississippi River.
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| Beautiful forest |
The name comes from the natural fog that often hangs over the range and looks like large smoke plumes from a distance. This fog is caused by vegetation emitting organic compounds that form vapors at normal temperature and pressure.
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| Perpetual "fog" |
Several rivers originate in the Smokies, including the Little Pigeon, Oconaluftee and Little Rivers.
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| Oconaluftee River |
The highest point in GSMNP is Clingmans Dome, the tallest mountain in Tennessee, which rises to an elevation of 6,643 feet.
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| Clingman's Dome |
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| My brother and I stayed at the summit in 2016 |
Mount Le Conte is the tallest from immediate base to summit, rising 5,301 feet from its base in Gatlinburg to 6,593 feet.
While, for a Coloradan, these elevations seem low (indeed, my house is equal with Clingman’s Dome), they rise from a much lower base and are significant.
The Smokies receive about 50 to 80 inches of precipitation a year, which is why the crappy weather wasn’t a surprise.
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| Fog and drizzle |
Winter snowfall can be heavy, especially on the higher slopes. Flash flooding often occurs after heavy rain.
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| Only moderate flow at The Sinks |
The oldest rocks in the Smokies formed over a billion years ago from the accumulation of marine sediments and igneous rock in a primordial ocean. More recent rocks formed from accumulations of the eroding land mass onto the ocean's continental shelf. The ancient ocean deposited a thick layer of marine sediments that left behind sedimentary rocks such as limestone. Then, when the North American and African plates collided, the Appalachian range uplifted. Erosion of softer sedimentary rocks eventually re-exposed the older rocks.
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| Boulders in a stream |
Around 20,000 years ago, glaciers advanced southward across North America and, although they never reached the Smokies, they led to colder temperatures and more precipitation. Trees at higher elevations were replaced by tundra. Spruce-fir forests occupied the valleys and slopes below 5,000 feet. Persistent freezing and thawing created large blockfields at the base of many mountain slopes.
Between 16,500 and 12,500 years ago, the glaciers retreated and temperatures rose. Tundra disappeared, spruce-fir forests moved up to the highest elevations and hardwood trees moved in from the coastal plains in the lower elevations. Temperatures continued warming until around 6,000 years ago, when they began to gradually grow cooler.
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| Now, the trend is reversing and temperatures are warming again |
Heavy logging in the late 19th century and early 20th century devastated much of the original forests.
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| Now, most is mature second-growth hardwood |
Flora and Fauna
The range's 1,600 species of flowering plants include more than 100 each of trees and shrubs. The Smokies are also home to over 450 species of mosses and similar plants and 2,000 species of fungi.
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| Colorful plants |
The forests of the Smokies are typically divided into three zones: cove hardwood in the stream valleys and lower slopes; northern hardwood on the higher slopes; and spruce-fir at the highest elevations.
Cove hardwood forests are among the most diverse forest types in North America, with more than 130 species including birch, basswood, buckeye, tulip poplar, maple, magnolia, hickory and hemlock. The American chestnut, which was the most beloved tree of the range's pre-park inhabitants, was killed off by Chestnut blight in the 1920s.
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| American chestnut, 1910; Photo: USA Today |
The understories contain dozens of species of shrubs and vines, including redbud, dogwood, rhododendron, mountain laurel and hydrangea.
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| Hardwood forest |
Cooler temperatures in higher elevations support plants more commonly found in the north, including northern species of birch, beech, basswood, maple and buckeye. The understory is home to coneflower, goldenrod, ragwort, bloodroot, hydrangea, grasses and ferns.
Spruce-fir forest – also called the "boreal" or "Canadian" forest – is a relic of the Ice Ages when temperatures were too cold to support hardwoods. After hardwoods returned, spruce-fir forest survived on the harsh mountain tops, typically above 5,500 feet.
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| Spruce-fir forest |
There are primarily two conifer species: Fraser fir and red spruce. Fraser firs once dominated above 6,200 feet, but most were killed by an infestation of the Balsam Wooly Adelgid, which arrived in the Smokies in the early 1960s. Large stands of dead trees remain atop Clingmans Dome.
Many red spruce, which can be 100 feet tall, were logged during World War I, but they are still common and some are believed to be 300 years old.
Southern Appalachia ‘s spruce-fir forests differ from those in northern latitudes because they have dense broad-leaved understories of rhododendron, mountain ash, pin cherry, thornless blackberry and hobblebush.
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| Fall colors |
Poorly lit lower areas are dominated by ferns and more than 280 species of mosses.
Appalachian balds – patches of land where trees are unexpectedly absent or sparse – are interspersed through the mid-to-upper elevations. Grassy balds are meadows of thick grasses and heath balds are dense thickets of rhododendron and mountain laurel typically on narrow ridges.
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| Grazing Elk bull |
GSMNP is home to 66 species of mammals, more than 240 species of birds, 43 species of amphibians, 60 species of fish and 40 species of reptiles.
Previously, it was home to Eastern Elk, which are now extinct. The Park now hosts introduced Manitoban Elk.
It has the densest Black Bear population east of the Mississippi River. Scott had two close encounters with a mama and three cubs in Cades Cove.
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| Bear family; Photos: Scott Stevens |
I had to make do with two different Black Bears in trees …
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| One was sleeping |
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| One was actively moving about |
As for birds, we saw very few ...
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| Most seen: Common Crows and Wild Turkeys |
History
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| Abundant water and game attracted settlers |
Based on found artifacts, Native Americans have likely been hunting in the Great Smoky Mountains for at least 14,000 years. The Pisgah Phase of the South Appalachian Mississippian culture eventually became the Cherokee.
Increasing reliance on agriculture around 900 to 1600 lured them away from the game-rich forests and into the fertile river valleys on the outer fringe of the Smokies, where they built villages.
Most were part of a chiefdom based on an island that was submerged in 1943 when Douglas Dam created Douglas Lake.
Two Spanish expeditions – Hernando de Soto in 1540 and Juan Pardo in 1567 – passed through the French Broad River valley north of the Smokies. Although they spent a considerable amount of time there, they left little mark in a cultural sense.
By the time the first English explorers arrived in Southern Appalachia in the late 17th century, the Cherokee controlled much of the region with the Great Smoky Mountains at the center of their territory. Most Cherokee settlements were in the river valleys on the outer fringe of the range. The tribe, one of the most culturally advanced on the continent, had towns, cultivated croplands, sophisticated political systems and extensive networks of trails.
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| The Cherokee lived here first |
The village of Oconaluftee, which was situated along the Oconaluftee River near today’s Visitor Center, was the only known permanent Cherokee village located within the National Park's boundaries.
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| Oconaluftee Visitor Center |
Sporadic or seasonal settlements were located in Cades Cove and the Hazel Creek valley.
Europeans began arriving in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee in the mid-18th century at the end of the French and Indian War, creating conflict with the Cherokee, who held legal title to much of the land. When the Cherokee aligned themselves with the British at the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1776, American forces launched an invasion of their territory. By 1805, the Cherokee had ceded control of the Great Smokies to the U.S.
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| Cherokee signs are bilingual |
Although much of the tribe was forced west along the Trail of Tears in 1838, a few retained their land on the Qualla Boundary and today comprise the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, headquartered in the town of Cherokee.
In the 1780s, several frontier outposts were established along the outskirts of the Smokies. Permanent settlers began arriving in the 1790s, creating communities in White Oak Flats (which eventually became Gatlinburg), what is now the Greenbrier section of the Park, Cosby, Sugarlands, Roaring Fork, Cades Cove, Hazel Creek and Cataloochee.
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| Early Cade's Cove buildings |
The National Park Service preserves and maintains 78 structures within the Park that were once part of these small Appalachian communities scattered throughout river valleys and coves.
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| Touring an old farm house |
Great Smoky Mountains National Park has five distinct historic districts and nine individual listings on the National Register of Historic Places. When you visit, there are ample opportunities to learn about the settlers and their descendants.
Like most of Southern Appalachia, the early 19th-century economy of the Smokies relied on subsistence agriculture. The average farm consisted of roughly 50 acres, part of which was cultivated and part of which was woodland.
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| Early settlers lived in 16 x 20-foot log cabins |
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| Cabins were often replaced by more elaborate log houses or modern frame houses |
Most farms had at least one barn.
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| A substantial barn |
They also usually had a springhouse for refrigeration, a smokehouse for curing meat, a coop to protect chickens from predators and a crib to keep corn dry and protected from rodents.
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| Springhouse and smithy |
Some more industrious farmers operated gristmills, general stores and sorghum presses.
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| The Cade's Cove grist mill still grinds |
Community life was typically centered on church, especially Primitive Baptist, Missionary Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian.
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| I photographed this historic church in 2014 |
While both Tennessee and North Carolina joined the Confederacy at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, the communities on the Tennessee side of the Smokies tended to support the Union while communities on the North Carolina side supported the Confederacy.
No major engagements took place in the Smokies, but minor skirmishes were fairly common. Cherokee Chief William Holland Thomas’ Confederate legion occupied Gatlinburg for several months to protect saltpeter mines atop Mount Le Conte. Residents of predominantly Union Cades Cove and predominantly Confederate Hazel Creek routinely stole one another's livestock, as did residents of Cosby and Cataloochee.
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| For the most part, however, the people just lived their lives as the war raged |
Only minor selective logging occurred in the Great Smoky Mountains throughout the 19th century because the region was so hard to reach. When demand for lumber skyrocketed after the Civil War, loggers started using splash dams and booms to float logs down rivers to lumber mills in nearby cities. Lumber companies sprang up on Little River, Hazel Creek and the Pigeon River. All three failed within their first few years when dams and booms were destroyed by floods.
Innovations in railroads and band saw technology in the late 19th century brought large-scale logging to the Smokies.
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| Originally, everything was small scale |
The Little River Lumber Company logged the Little River watershed between 1901 and 1939 and established company towns at Townsend, Elkmont and Tremont. Other companies logged the Hazel Creek watershed and the Oconaluftee watershed.
By the time operations ceased in the 1930s, about 80 percent of the virgin forests had been clear cut.
Little River Lumber owner Wilson Townsend began advertising Elkmont as a tourist destination in 1909 and, within a few years, the Wonderland Hotel and the Appalachian Club had been established to cater to elite Knoxvillians seeking summer mountain getaways.
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The Wonderland Hotel in its heyday; Photo: Historical Marker Database
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| The last time I saw it in 2014 |
In the early 1920s, Appalachian Club members including Knoxville businessman Colonel David Chapman began a movement to establish a National Park.
Establishing Great Smoky Mountains National Park was more complex than creating its predecessors Yellowstone and Yosemite because that land had already been federally owned.
Along with convincing logging firms to sell lucrative lumber rights, the Great Smoky Mountain Park Commission (GSMPC) headed by Chapman had to negotiate purchase of thousands of small farms, remove communities and deal with the Tennessee and North Carolina legislatures, which at times were opposed to spending taxpayer money on Park efforts.
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| Small towns all had their own services, such as blacksmiths |
The GSMPC completed most major land purchases by 1932 and the National Park officially opened in 1934, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt presiding over the opening ceremony at Newfound Gap.
Our Visit
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited National Park in the country, with about 13 million visitors a year. Its popularity stems from its beauty and its proximity to major metropolitan areas all along the east coast.
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| One of 13 million |
Because the Park is bisected by a through-highway, GSMNP does not charge admission or require entry reservations.
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| Our pass |
To better manage the Park's considerable crowds, however, GSMNP began requiring visitors to buy parking passes, which can be purchased for a day ($5), a week ($15) or the year ($40). You can get them up to six months in advance from recreation.gov.
The tags are assigned to specific vehicles and cannot be used for multiple cars. Not location-specific, they can be used anywhere within the Park’s boundaries. Tags are not required for motorists who drive through or park for less than 15 minutes.
We stayed in Gatlinburg at the Quality Inn Creekside. The hotel, which is tucked into a cliffside by a small creek has seen better days and is a bit dark and damp. But, it has covered parking and is about as close to the Park entrance as you can get.
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| Exploring the quiet woods |
So, we were spared the agony of driving through the super-crowded, super touristy town. A good trade-off.
While in the Smokies, we just drove around, looking for pretty trees to photograph and hoping to see wildlife.
We also took a short drive along the southern part of the Blue Ridge Parkway, the 469-mile-long mountain road that links GSMNP to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. It was pretty, but the weather didn’t cooperate.
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| Appropriate for our Halloween-day drive |
There were some lovely vistas ...
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| Foggy, but colorful |
... and a few cooperative birds ...
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| Common Crows and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet |
... but, it was too cold and gray to justify driving very far ...
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| Trying to get an uncooperative bird |
We drove the Cades Cove Loop Road twice ...
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| Cades Cove showcases farming; the last residents left in 1999 |
Cade's Cove has some lovely historical displays ...
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| This Ranger is training to be a blacksmith, too |
... and is the best place to see Black Bears ...
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| You have to look up |
It also has a campground, stables (we did a hayride when the girls were small), bike rentals and a small store where we got sandwiches and ice cream ...
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| Not a restaurant, per se, but it will do |
Plus, we drove the quiet Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail once ...
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| A pleasant drive I highly recommend |
We ate lunch one day in Cherokee. The Indian Tacos were OK, but the corn fritters were to die for.
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| Hot lunch on a cold day |
We also had a really delicious Italian dinner (we split an enormous eggplant Parmesan) at Best Italian Cafe and Pizzeria and a pleasant meal (I just had a salad so it's not fair to compare) at the Cherokee Grill.
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| That's half an order on the left; the right was on Halloween (the server is a pumpkin) |
On our final morning, we went up to Clingman’s Dome, which had received some overnight snow and a heavy frosting of rime ice.
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| Frosted trees |
It was only 12°F and fairly windy at the top, so we did most of our photography from a sheltered pull-out below the summit.
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| Brrrrrrr |
Scott made a cool time-lapse video of the waves of fog drifting over the peaks. See it HERE.
We looked in several stores in Pigeon Forge, Cherokee and along the Parkway, hoping to find pottery similar to pieces we bought decades ago. Times have changed and the rustic glazes we prefer are hard to come by. We ended up just buying one small casserole (to add to three pieces that used to be Scott’s parents’ that was he was bringing home from his sister, wonderyoutPatti).
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