Smokey Mountain National Park

June 6, 2017 

Ann and Sabastian at the entrance of the 

Park with the obligatory picture.  

 

We arrived in Pigeon Forge June 5 (Monday). Pigeon Forge is on the Tennessee (North) side of The Smoky National Park. We settled in at Up the Creek RV Park. Tuesday we went into the Park, you can see the picture above of Ann and Sabastian. This is our first trip into Smoky Mountains NP. It is a little different. It is a free park, no entrance fee. Is the only NP that does not charge the $10 per person or $20/25 dollars a car. It also does not have any food or gas in the Park. The park is huge, it is the largest Park in the system except for a couple of really big ones in Alaska. SMNP is 520,000 acres. Most of Tuesday was spent driving around Townsend and Cades Cove. The vista's were the highlight of the day. We initially had planned to leave this area Wednesday AM but we only got to see some of the Park on Tuesday so we extended our stay at the RV Park one more day. We were up and at it early on Wednesday...we were headed for the highest point in the Park. Clingmans Dome, 6643 feet. We passed through Sugarland Visitor Center and the on to Clingmans Dome Visitor Center.

 

On our way to Clingmans Dome we stopped at Newfound Gap. This is very historic spot. On September 2, 1940 then President Roosevelt dedicated the National Park on the lower level of the structure in the picture above. 2000 people were in attendance. He is the only President that has ever visited the Park.

 



Interesting fact is that the Appalachian Trail goes through the Park. About 72 of the 2180 miles is in the Park. It does have the highest elevation spot on the trail at Clingmans Dome 6643 feet.

















The two pictures above is what you see no matter what direction you look. It also has the only name that works. It truly looks smoky. It has hundreds of miles of small waterways. It needs that many to get rid of the over 80 inches of rainfall on an annual basis. This Park is really easy on the eyes. More colors of green than you can believe. Think that is why Ann announced today that it is now her favorite Park. That moves Arches in Utah to second place.

 

At $25,000 an acre you could own the foothills to a mountain on the Northern edge of the Park. I do not think you could even grow corn on this land.

 

Was a great two days. Good start to the National Park section of the trip. We are heading to a National Park in Hot Springs Arkansas. Will take two days to get there. Never got to Gatlinburg. Dollywood is the second most visited site in Tennessee. Next blog in a couple of days.....