Gatlinburg ... a Practically Unplanned Adventure! June 27 - July 5, 2009 About This Page:

[lauren-roxy]

Sorry your plans didn't exactly go as scheduled Christie!! I'm going to bet on leaving at 10:30.

[Katara81]

Lovin it so far! We just returned from a long weekend in Gatlinburg a few weeks ago. I grew up in East TN, so G-burg was a day trip we took multiple times a year, and now live in middle TN, and it's very interesting to me to see places I know so well through the eyes of a tourist.

BTW, I'm assuming by your mention of the bumper-to-bumper-traffic-for-miles, that you have been taking Exit 407 that goes through Sevierville and Pigeon Forge to get into Gatlinburg? I'd be happy to tell you the "back way" into Gatlinburg for your next trip, if you haven't found it yet. Actually there's two back ways.....cuts off a tremendous amount of time sitting in traffic.

Can't wait for the next installment!

[hall0731]

Originally Posted by christiejay

Sounds great, have you been before?

PS. From looking at the details on your ticker, it looks like Seattle has a lot of things to offer that we would like to check out!

We haven't been there before. My DH wants to go to seattle. So, being a good wife, I am going to make it happen. The helicopter ride over Mt. St. Helen is mine though....

[chezp]

I know what you mean about having Day 0 - that would freak me out as well if I didn't have that!

[christiejay]

Originally Posted by Katara81

BTW, I'm assuming by your mention of the bumper-to-bumper-traffic-for-miles, that you have been taking Exit 407 that goes through Sevierville and Pigeon Forge to get into Gatlinburg? I'd be happy to tell you the "back way" into Gatlinburg for your next trip, if you haven't found it yet. Actually there's two back ways.....cuts off a tremendous amount of time sitting in traffic.

Yeah, that was the location! For about 5 miles up the interstate. In '06 that was the first time we encountered that so it was a big shock. We're used to the traffic within the three towns along the Parkway/441, but it was a surprise to us to see it that bad, for so far up the interstate. Yes, we do know the back way in, but coming from the Knoxville Zoo it seems a shame to backtrack when the main exit (407) is so close. We had a much better experience this year, though! If we had decided against visiting the Knoxville Zoo we were going to go in through Maryville. My dad is always trying to get us to go that way. My parents go 2-3 times a year and go in through Maryville, Townsend and Cades Cove before heading to check in at their cabin.

Originally Posted by hall0731

We haven't been there before. My DH wants to go to seattle. So, being a good wife, I am going to make it happen. The helicopter ride over Mt. St. Helen is mine though....

I would love to try a helicopter ride. There are several offered in the Gatlinburg area, but I wasn't sure if Joshua was ready for it. He probably would be fine with it by our next trip up there, and hopefully Jay will be back on a normal work schedule (regular money again!) by then, so we can afford to do a few more things. That's one thing I didn't mention about our planning process. Jay wasn't willing to pay for too many things this year because his hours have been cut back to only 32 hours a week. I had saved a good bit of money from my part-time job, but I wanted to save part of that toward our '11 WDW trip, so I wasn't willing to part with it too easily! So the helicopter ride is still on my wish list. When we got to Gatlinburg and looked at all the visitor brochures, I also discovered that zipline tours have arrived in the area, and that is something else I would like to try. Joshua was too young for it this time, but maybe in the future! I don't know how much this one company was charging, but considering they were offering a $14 off coupon, it must have been a tremendous charge! Dollywood was just getting ready to open a zipline ride within the park, and theirs had an extra charge of $40.

Originally Posted by chezp

I know what you mean about having Day 0 - that would freak me out as well if I didn't have that!

I felt extremely rushed and unprepared. That was one reason I chose the title for my report! I wouldn't rule out doing it again in the future (our vacation dates are almost always the same each year, as is the cub scout resident camp). But if we did have the same schedule again next year, I would definitely force myself to get more done ahead of time. I still don't know why I couldn't get in the mood to plan. I'm ready to go on both my Branson and WDW trips, and looking forward to next summer. I love Gatlinburg, but just couldn't get started planning.

[Katara81]

[quote=christiejay;2873380]Yeah, that was the location! For about 5 miles up the interstate. In '06 that was the first time we encountered that so it was a big shock. We're used to the traffic within the three towns along the Parkway/441, but it was a surprise to us to see it that bad, for so far up the interstate. Yes, we do know the back way in, but coming from the Knoxville Zoo it seems a shame to backtrack when the main exit (407) is so close. We had a much better experience this year, though! If we had decided against visiting the Knoxville Zoo we were going to go in through Maryville. My dad is always trying to get us to go that way. My parents go 2-3 times a year and go in through Maryville, Townsend and Cades Cove before heading to check in at their cabin.


Yeah, the Maryville/Townsend way would definitely be backtracking, but I was actually talking about the "local/secret" route. It's a bit longer mileage wise (about 10 extra miles compared to the Exit 407 route), but if you are going directly into G-burg during a heavily traveled time, it cuts off a ton of traffic. So if you ever need it, here it is LOL:
From I-40, Exit 440 or 443 – take Hwy 321 about 20 miles (becomes East Parkway) towards Gatlinburg. At the Hwy 454 / Buckhorn Rd. intersection the road will become four lanes (Gatlinburg city limit). About 4 miles past the city limit, you come to the "T" intersection in Gatlinburg where the Hard Rock Cafe is located.

[Colexis Mom]

Great update Christie!! I hope everything went well departure day!!

[wayneava81]

I am so looking forward to reading about your trip!
We are planning on going to Gatlinburg also sometime in 2010!
I haven't been since I was 14 (14 years ago) and my Dh and kids have never been.

[pamcarey]

Great TR so far! I went to Gatlinburg twice in 1989 when I lived in eastern TN for 6 months. Looking forward to seeing places that I haven't seen in 20 years!

[christiejay]

Originally Posted by Katara81

Yeah, the Maryville/Townsend way would definitely be backtracking, but I was actually talking about the "local/secret" route. It's a bit longer mileage wise (about 10 extra miles compared to the Exit 407 route), but if you are going directly into G-burg during a heavily traveled time, it cuts off a ton of traffic. So if you ever need it, here it is LOL:
From I-40, Exit 440 or 443 – take Hwy 321 about 20 miles (becomes East Parkway) towards Gatlinburg. At the Hwy 454 / Buckhorn Rd. intersection the road will become four lanes (Gatlinburg city limit). About 4 miles past the city limit, you come to the "T" intersection in Gatlinburg where the Hard Rock Cafe is located.

Thanks! We've been OUT that way before (when getting back on I-40 to go to Asheville), but I never considered going IN from that direction. And since our resort is on 321, we'll keep that in mind for next time.

Originally Posted by wayneava81

I am so looking forward to reading about your trip!
We are planning on going to Gatlinburg also sometime in 2010!
I haven't been since I was 14 (14 years ago) and my Dh and kids have never been.

Originally Posted by pamcarey

Great TR so far! I went to Gatlinburg twice in 1989 when I lived in eastern TN for 6 months. Looking forward to seeing places that I haven't seen in 20 years!

The two of you are definitely in for some surprises! Let's see, after 1995 I didn't go again until 2001. And just in those 6 years it was like a whole different world. Sevierville and Pigeon Forge have really grown up and out. Gatlinburg doesn't really have room to expand, but the Parkway looks very different. Less of the tacky, more of the log-cabin type curb appeal. Never fear, though, tacky souvenirs still abound! Definitely request visitor guides so you can figure out all your options.

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Great update Christie!! I hope everything went well departure day!!

It actually did. And I was confused for a minute when I logged in just now ... I've been offline for a few days, and there for a minute I thought I had already posted the next update telling about our departure morning. But, , I remembered ... Jay didn't get his pics uploaded to Shutterfly and I didn't want to tell the story without having his pictures to throw in. Hopefully I'll have the update ready for tomorrow, and then there shouldn't be any more delays.

[christiejay]

Okay, here we go!

Day 1 - Saturday, June 27

We got up at our regular time, even though I knew I had several things still left to do, there was no way I could drag myself out of bed any earlier. While I went through my regular routine of getting myself and Joshua ready, Jay did a few things to help out as well. We packed up the cooler and loaded it and our other things into the truck as I got them ready. I started getting a little short and snappy with Jay, for which I had to go back and apologize. I knew we would be late leaving this morning, but I still had such high hopes that things would be going a little quicker than what they were. After most of the things had been done, I asked Jay to deliver our cat to the vet where she was being boarded and I used that time to clean up the room she stays in a little bit. I made another check of the house and thought of a few more things to pack up. I loaded a few more things into the truck. But by this time I had settled down and was not running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I had resigned myself to leaving whenever we were ready.

Joshua was finished getting ready first, so I sent him to the living room to play while Jay and I checked on everything else. I can't remember much else specific to mention. Our departure time was set for 8:00, which is the same time schedule I've used for our past two trips to Gatlinburg. But somehow we never seem to manage to leave on time! On our ‘04 trip we ended up leaving about 20 minutes late, and in ‘06 we left 20 minutes late as well. Obviously we were late this time too, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn't as bad as what I had thought it might be - "only" 70 minutes! So instead of leaving at 8:00, it was 9:10. So, who wins the pool? Snacks are on you!

We drove across town and entered the Natchez Trace Parkway at approximately milepost 90. The plan was to not make any stops until after we crossed Highway 16, as that's the road to Jay's sister's house and we could make those stops at some other point in time. Even after that point, we would be skipping over the stops that we had made in ‘04 and ‘06, unless it was a particular favorite of ours. Let me interrupt here for a moment to insert a plug for Jay's POI files! After our last trip to Gatlinburg Jay got a GPS unit and found online where you could download Points of Interest (POI) files for various places. He noticed that nobody had done one for the Natchez Trace, so he threw one together real quick. He asked me to help him pinpoint the official sites on a sat map on Google, but some of the map pictures were grainy so we had to just pick a spot close to the general area. One of our objectives on this trip was to check out how closely our guesses turned out - most of them were right on! But there were several that needed to be moved north or south a few tenths of a mile. We've done that now, so these files should be much closer to true-life. Check them out if you'll be traveling the Trace:

Natchez Trace Parkway | POI Factory

So our first planned stop was at Myrick Creek, milepost 145. This was about an hour's drive, as the speed limit on the Trace is only 50. I had been debating about whether to skip this stop to make up a little time. But we'd done that the last two trips, and I really wanted to walk the short trail that was there. So I told Jay to go ahead and stop anyway. When we pulled into the parking lot there was another Nissan Titan parked there, with a man and a boy just sitting there. Jay struck up a conversation with him about Nissan - turns out he worked for one of the suppliers - small world, right? We headed out on the trail - the signs said you were supposed to look for evidence of beavers, but all we noticed were the mosquitoes that were biting us! The water was so low in the stream that it had settled into several small pools, perfect mosquito breeding ground! But the trail was short and level so we were soon back at the truck. Here's the pictures I took along the way. [TIME OUT!] It will quickly become apparent to you from looking at our pictures that we are obsessed with three things: trees, rocks, and water! This was definitely a nature-themed trip, so you will have to be patient with me on that aspect! [TIME IN!]

(I tried to get a picture of the informative posters at the beginning of the trail, but they were behind glass and I kept getting a glare. But they told about beavers, dam construction, living in lodges, and what their diet was in the different seasons throughout the year.)





There's Jay and Joshua ... going off and leaving me while I was taking pictures!


I liked how the moss was growing over the trail.




There wasn't much to see here as you can see ...


So Jay and Joshua didn't like the trail because of all the mosquitoes, and I was disappointed not to have seen more. But now I can say we've stopped there and walked the trail, so I can mark it off my list for next time!

Once we got back to the truck we grabbed a snack - some chips - and a drink from the cooler and ate as we drove. We stopped a few miles up the road at the Holly Hill stop, to use the restroom, then back on the road again.

We drove a little bit further and stopped at one of the 3 main stops along the Trace, Jeff Busby at milepost 193. This stop has a gas station (the only one directly on the Trace), camp store, free campground, picnic area, trails and an observation area on top of Little Mountain - elevation 603 feet - soon we would be over 6000 feet higher than that! We were going to top off the gas tank as soon as we got there, as we usually do, but immediately we noticed that the gas station and camp store were closed! They even had the yellow caution tape wrapped all the way around the pumps and the building. Don't know if that's temporary or permanent - maybe with the economy they just couldn't afford to pay anybody to staff the station. It was no big deal since we didn't really need any more gas, but it definitely would have been bad news for anybody planning on stopping here. Instead they would have had to drive several miles to get off the Trace and into a nearby town.

Since it was lunch time, we drove straight back to the picnic area. As has been the case on our two previous trips, we were the only ones here today and it was very peaceful. Jay and Joshua spent most of their time watching the ants, as we sat at our usual picnic table on top of the small hill. After eating we drove up to the top of the "mountain" to check out the view. Here's the pictures I took:

the interpretive marker


the view on one side (complete with Joshua pointing out something):








and the view from the other side:










Here's a few pictures that Jay took while we were there:

Me in my hiking boots ... no, they're not necessary for the short trails we were walking today. But I like that if there's any mud I can just keep on going and not worry about it!




The trail we didn't have time to walk on:


It was funny because when we got out of the truck Joshua was immediately impressed, saying that you could see the whole world from up here. I laughed to myself, wondering what he would say when we went up to Clingman's Dome in a few days - the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There was a nature trail that started here and made a short loop, but I saved that for "next time" so we could make up a little time. And we did - instead of being 70 minutes behind schedule we were now only 45 minutes behind. Yay! (These things bother me way too much!)

Up Next: The Post-It Note Bandit Strikes Again!

[pamcarey]

Great start! This is really interesting. I don't really know anything about the Natchez Trace Parkway. What states does it run through?

[bsblady01]

more please

[chezp]

What wonderful scenery.

[lauren-roxy]

Great update and beautiful photos!!