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

[christiejay]

Originally Posted by Straitlover

Christie, aobut the catfish in MS: I ate at Catfish Charlie's in Gulfport. Yum!!! I'm not normally a catfish person, but that was delish! Of course, at Catfish Charlie's, you only ahve a choice of catfish, shrimp or chicken strips, and I don't eat shrimp, so catfish it was!

Yeah that's the thing about a lot of the catfish places here. You better like catfish, because there's not that many options on the menu! We usually go to Cock of the Walk. There's one in Natchez and one on the Reservoir. Another favorite is Jerry's Catfish House on Highway 49 in Florence. Their building is a dome that's painted all white, so it looks like an igloo. I don't know the story behind the building, but they sure do serve good fish. The senior adults from our church go once a month. If you don't get there early you have to stand in line outside.

Anyway, now I'm hungry! The good news is that tonight is our first Wednesday night supper at church, since school has started back this week. And what's typically on the menu for the first week back? You guessed it - CATFISH!!! Now it won't be as good as restaurant fish, but it will hold me over for a while!

[PrincessSharon]

Just catching up. Those trails looked really nice, and what views! But after all that walking, I completely understand you not wanting to climb a flight of stairs.

[rhinohunter]

Looking good. Bring on some more pix.

[Straitlover]

We used to have a Cock of the Walk restaurant in Raleigh years ago (late 80's maybe??). Didn't last long before they closed, though.

[pamcarey]

Great couple of updates! Beautiful pictures! On my one trip to Clingman's Dome about 20 years ago, I remember it being rather cloudy and hazy. Now I want to go look at my pictures!

[christiejay]

Originally Posted by PrincessSharon

Just catching up. Those trails looked really nice, and what views! But after all that walking, I completely understand you not wanting to climb a flight of stairs.

Yeah it took a couple of days before I could walk up the stairs, as opposed to pulling myself up them. It was worth it, though.

Originally Posted by rhinohunter

Looking good. Bring on some more pix.

Sorry, I had a project to complete yesterday and wasn't able to log on. I've got the next update ready, though!

Originally Posted by Straitlover

We used to have a Cock of the Walk restaurant in Raleigh years ago (late 80's maybe??). Didn't last long before they closed, though.

Originally Posted by pamcarey

Great couple of updates! Beautiful pictures! On my one trip to Clingman's Dome about 20 years ago, I remember it being rather cloudy and hazy. Now I want to go look at my pictures!

Thanks! This reminds me of a very site - There is a daily picture taken from the Look Rock Tower which is on the far Western side of the park, looking back into the park. You can check their archives going way back, it's very interesting to see the different types of weather and the visibility. They've got the visibility (in miles) posted with each picture.

NPS: Nature & Science» Air Resources Division - Great Smoky Mountains NP Web Camera

This page shows the most recent view taken from the camera. At the bottom is a space with several boxes of additional info - that's where you can choose to look at the archived images. And at the very top of the page, you can click on Web Cameras and choose from webcams at other national park sites.

[christiejay]

Day 4 - Tuesday, June 30

Just like yesterday, we moved a little slowly in the morning. Eventually we had our breakfast, got our things ready, and left the resort. We were a lot later leaving than I had hoped, especially since we were going to drive out to Cades Cove. I also had planned for us to do an extended driving tour - exit Cades Cove on Parson Branch Road, lunch at the Look Rock picnic area on the Foothills Parkway, and back through Townsend - before coming back into the park for another hike. And, as if that weren't enough, there was a Junior Ranger Program at 2:00 at the Sugarlands Visitor Center that I was wanting to get to for Joshua to attend. I have no earthly idea how I ever thought we could get all this done in the first place. So let me just go ahead and kill the suspense right now by saying that we only did about half of what was planned!

The traffic was not bad at all on the way out to Cades Cove. Here are the pictures I took along the drive:






The river was being very heavily fished this morning!

I'm not positive you can make out the fisherman in that pic, but there were people parked at most of the pull-offs, fishing.



When we entered the Cades Cove area I was very excited to see turkeys out in the central field. I was really looking forward to seeing lots of wildlife today, since this is one of the best areas in the park to do so. Unfortunately we were probably a little too late getting started and did not see very many animals at all. So most of my pictures from Cades Cove will be of the scenery - sorry! This area is pretty much a dead end - there are a couple of one-way gravel roads out, one over each side of the mountains, but most people stay on the paved road to go out, back towards the main entrance of the park. The road through Cades Cove is an 11-mile, one-lane, one-way loop road. There are only a few areas to pull off the road, so traffic usually comes to a standstill if people spot either a bear or some deer. (I just read where they are going to have this road closed for about 3 months in the spring - maybe they will put in some more pull-offs!) There are two gravel roads cutting across the cove that you can use as a shortcut out (or a way to repeat part of the loop), but that kind of defeats the purpose of driving all the way out there in the first place. Regardless of your particular route through and out of Cades Cove, it is quite an adventure!

Along the route are several old homeplaces and churches that you can stop and look at. We have done these in the past, so today we were going to skip over all of them except for one. Mainly we just wanted to look for animals, and exit the Cove on that road I had mentioned. So that was the plan, here's what really happened! First, the view you usually have: a vehicle right in front of you!


One of the groups of turkeys that were in the field up front:


Empty fields and mountains on the opposite side of us:






In the middle is the first cabin you come to along the tour, the John Oliver Place.

(There is a small parking area along the road - which we had already passed - and you walk along a trail at the edge of the field to get there.)







The Methodist Church:

(The two front doors are for men and women - at the time, late 1800's and early 1900's, many churches were segregated by sex. This church wasn't, but they used the same blueprints as a church who did!)


Sorry about the glare on the windshield - I was taking this one across the road as we came around a curve. I tried not to take many pictures across the truck because of the glare/reflection.











I had thought that we might make fairly good time since we weren't stopping at any of the churches along the loop road, but it was not to be. Toward the back of the loop there was a tremendous traffic jam because people had spotted a mother and baby bear in the woods. Several people had got out of their vehicles and were even going out for a closer look. There were a few considerate people who had pulled off the road, but others who simply stopped in the road, completely blocking traffic. And of course by the time we got there the bears had moved back into the trees and we couldn't see them at all. Eventually everybody started walking back to their vehicles and we were able to get going again.

Finally I was able to get a picture of a deer. You can see it, right, that little speck in front of the fence?


I think I actually took this one during the bear traffic jam, when there was nothing else to do but wait ...


And I found a turkey in the woods


Finally we came up on the back of the loop road where our first stop was. On both of our previous trips we have stopped at all the churches and homesites in Cades Cove except one - the Elijah Oliver homeplace. (He is the son of John Oliver, whose cabin I showed you at the beginning of the loop road.) It is set off the road a half-mile, so you have to park and hike to get there. By the time we would make it to this point in the loop we were always in such a hurry to get to the restroom up ahead that we didn't want to take the time for this walk. And last time the parking lot had been closed because they were having to do some maintenance work on the trail. So today we were determined to finally hike out there and check it out. In this picture we had just come around the last curve in the road, and you can see some cars in the trail parking lot between the trees. The trail starts on the opposite side of the road (the right-hand side).


Here's the panoramic view from the trail parking lot.










Jay's pictures - first, the turkeys we saw back at the entrance to the Cove




And his version of the panorama from the trail parking lot -








And finally, the deer I had spotted earlier was in this same field, and he was able to zoom in on it from this angle


Up next: Seeing how the Olivers lived

[Meggera]

Nice update! The scenery is beautiful. My DH would have loved to see the turkies. He likes to turkey hunt and makes the best turkey nuggets. Venison is yummy good, too.

[Lemap760]

Love the pictures. It's great to see parts of the country that aren't over built by commercialism and housing.

[christiejay]

Originally Posted by Meggera

Nice update! The scenery is beautiful. My DH would have loved to see the turkies. He likes to turkey hunt and makes the best turkey nuggets. Venison is yummy good, too.

The turkeys, and other animals, particularly in Cades Cove seem almost tame. They just get used to having all the traffic around, I suppose. Of course, it is their home and it is us who are imposing, so I guess they've got every right to be out and about, even crossing the road when they feel like it!

Originally Posted by Lemap760

Love the pictures. It's great to see parts of the country that aren't over built by commercialism and housing.

It is very nice. Now once you get outside the park boundaries it is a different story. I know a lot of the locals are not happy that so many of the surrounding hillsides have been taken over by log-cabin developments. The good thing is that the park is so huge, once you get inside it you can honestly get lost in it, in a good way that is. It's one of those good-bad balance situations. Any popular destination is going to be overrun to some degree. Now if I could just find a way to stay in the park day and night, without having to camp!

[chezp]

What beautiful scenery! I wish I could say I'm surprised by the traffic jam, but sadly I'm not... some people.

[Katara81]

Sooo pretty - I love those pics looking over the valley floor towards the peaks.

Aren't those traffic jams a pain? Last time we went through Cades Cove, some bear cubs crossed the road, and the guy in front of us just stopped, jumped out of his car, and went running after them. Someone obviously didn't know anything about bears LOL, fortunately he came back before the mother bear had a chance to kick his patootie.

[christiejay]

Originally Posted by chezp

What beautiful scenery! I wish I could say I'm surprised by the traffic jam, but sadly I'm not... some people.

Originally Posted by Katara81

Sooo pretty - I love those pics looking over the valley floor towards the peaks.

Aren't those traffic jams a pain? Last time we went through Cades Cove, some bear cubs crossed the road, and the guy in front of us just stopped, jumped out of his car, and went running after them. Someone obviously didn't know anything about bears LOL, fortunately he came back before the mother bear had a chance to kick his patootie.

Some people just don't get it.

[christiejay]

Continuing with Day 4 - June 30

We got our hiking sticks out and crossed the road to start on the trail to the Elijah Oliver Place. First we had a short walk through a grassy meadow. Views on both sides:




Then it was into the woods over a small stream.


We hadn't gone very far before we came across a huge barn. I hadn't read anything about it before the trip. But looking through my Cades Cove tour booklet now, they do mention it, but only to say that it was a fairly new structure when the land was obtained for the park in the 1930's. We looked inside but didn't go in because it looked like it was being used for storage, and also there were some bees, and parts didn't look too safe.












A close-up of some of the bees (although apparently I could have gotten a little closer since they just look like spots on that rock!




Then we continued on the trail. We passed a couple of other families on their way out. But other than that it was nice and quiet. Some of the views:




And finally we made our approach to the homesite.


I can't decide if this was the corncrib or the smokehouse. The buildings weren't marked in any way, and the tour booklet does not distinguish between the outbuildings. This one was a little bit away from the house, so I'm guessing corncrib.


This is the back side of the 3-stall barn.


This is on the back of the main house. It was either the original house and they built a large addition, or it was a small addition to the original larger house.


This is the other outbuilding I can't distinguish. It was right behind the house. I'm guessing this is the smokehouse, as I would think they would need to keep the meats closer to the house than the corn?


Two different views of the back/side of the house and chimney.




And a progression of shots showing our advance to the springhouse (refrigerator ). There were a few bees swarming around so I never knew which picture would be my last before I needed to stay back.








A look back from the springhouse


A few closeups of the chimney, showing bee holes. We could hear them buzzing pretty loudly, but never really saw any.






A couple of different views of the front of the house. The part of the front porch that is enclosed, the tour booklet calls a "stranger room". This was like a guest bedroom.




The front of the barn that I pictured earlier


And the opposite side of the other building, that I showed you first, that I am guessing is the corncrib.


That was all there was to see at the homesite. The trail continued on, but this was all we had come to see so we made our way back to the truck. Here's the bridge over the little stream at the beginning of the trail. As you can see, Joshua preferred to hop across the rocks.




From here we drove on to our next stop, the Cades Cove Visitor Center. A few pictures from the short drive:












That's the house that is part of the Cades Cove Visitor Center stop. I'll show it again in the next update.


Up Next: Adjustment #1 to our schedule for today

[Meggera]

Everything is so green and lush with real trees. Living in Central TX, everything is brown and barren with short, squatty trees. I miss living in the East. Great update!