For many years, we took Beth and Rick to the Smoky Mountains for vacation and after a rough beginning, they loved it. This year, we took Beth’s two children (Charley, 12 and Lizzie, 7) to the
Smokies and Lake Allatoona for 10 days. It was their first time up there and
their reactions were all we could ask for. If you’ve never been to the Smokies
and enjoy nature and history, you need to go.
The park has many hiking trails from easy to strenuous, several driving
tours, and many homes and other buildings from the 1800’s preserved and easy to
access. The Ranger programs are superb: enjoyable with tidbits of knowledge
sprinkled in. The Junior Ranger program is wonderful for kids 12 and under – it
helps teach children about respecting nature and history in a fun and painless
way. Once the program is completed, the kids get a badge to wear (and adults
who have gone with them get a “Not-So-Junior Ranger” emblem and certificate.
Rich and I are proud
bearers of ours!
“ Cades
Cove was once known as "Kate's Cove" after an Indian chief's wife.
The Cove drew the Cherokee Nation back again and again by its abundant wildlife
and good hunting. Later, Cades Cove's wildlife drew European descent
frontiersmen to make it their home. They and their offspring cleared the
fertile valley floor and built farms to sustain them. The pioneer's families
lived in Cades Cove for many generations before the cove became part of The
Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Today, Cades Cove is still as full of
wildlife as before but draws not hunters, but millions of Smokies visitors.
The Cove has been preserved by the Great Smoky Mountain National Park to
look much the way it looked in the 1800's. Once home to a small mountain
community, whose settlers came from mainly from Virginia, North Carolina and
upper east Tennessee, Cades Cove is today the largest open air museum in the
entire Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Cades Cove has original pioneer
homesteads, barns, businesses, pasture and farmland--a fitting tribute to the
hearty people who lived here in the days of yesteryear.” http://www.cadescove.net/auto_tour.html
We had decided to stay in the Cades Cove campground, since
it has such good Ranger programs, is near the loop, and not far from a town
where we could get cell coverage (had to stay in touch with their Mom and
Dad!). School had already begun for the surrounding area, so the park wasn’t as
busy as we had feared, which was nice. It was, however, hotter and more humid
than usual. And no A/C, since Cades Cove doesn’t have water or electric
hookups. Thank heaven we bought a battery operated fan, which kept Rich
reasonably happy during the day and the nights cooled down pretty well.
On our first trip around the loop we saw a bear in a tree
having a feast on cherries. We have some surprisingly good photos, considering
how bushy the tree was. We missed our first Ranger talk because of the bear,
but managed to get to the Junior Ranger program at the Cable Mill on time where
the kids made a nice strip of fabric on a little loom they got to keep.
After
finishing up there, I dropped Rich and the kids off at the picnic area to play
in the stream and cool off. They weren’t dressed for the water, but that didn’t
stop the kids and at 52 degrees F, it cooled them down quickly.
The next morning we saw three deer meandering through the
campground near our site and the kids were suitably impressed. Charley took
some pictures and was getting pretty good with the camera. We went into Townsend to get some fresh bread
and let the kids talk to their folks, then went back to the park where Rich and
the kids spend the afternoon in the stream cooling off and playing. Dickens and
I stayed on shore and took photos. The water is just too cold for me!
The next day we set out to explore the loop. We stopped at
the John Oliver cabin parking area and walked back to it. On the way back found
some pretty wildflowers and in the cherry trees by the parking area – another
bear. This guy was not as easy to see because he was in a larger tree and the
foliage was thicker, but it was fun anyway.
Can’t believe we saw two bears in
three days – when we first began going up to the Smokies 20 plus years ago, it
took us five years before we saw any!
After the bear, we went on to see the Primitive Baptist
Church and cemetery and the Methodist Church (which had a door for the women
and a door for the men!) and cemetery.
On our way to the Elijah Oliver cabin (my favorite), we crossed a log
footbridge, saw several different kinds
of fungus, and what I think was a red velvet ant (also called a cow
killer). The Oliver homestead was a beautiful location with a surprisingly
large and attractive cabin, smokehouse, corn crib, springhouse, and barn.
The Cable Mill Historic area and Visitor Center was our next
stop on the loop tour. It is a wonderful spot beautiful area and the John P.
Cable mill still sits in its original spot.
It is still operable but cannot sell the cornmeal ground there due to
health regulations. Also at this site is the cantilever barn, a corn crib, the
sorghum mill, Becky Cable’s home, the mill flume, blacksmith shop, smokehouse,
and visitor center where there are some wonderful books and other items about
the area.
The weather turned nasty – lots of thunder, lightning, and
pouring rain - at this point and we went straight to camp without stopping at
any of the other cabins on the loop.
On the following day, we did laundry and drove to the Laurel
Falls parking area. Laurel Falls is a 2 ½ mile round trip, and unlike a lot of
falls, the walk to the falls was uphill and back was down. It often is the
other way around. Rich and I once again found out how out of shape we are.
On
the way back from Laurel Falls, we stopped by the Greenbrier Schoolhouse, where
during a visit years ago, Beth won a spelling bee. Sadly, Miss Elsie is no
longer around to tell us about the schoolhouse and give us a feel for the way
life was during those years. She is
missed!
The next day we went out to the swimming hole near the
Townsend entrance of the park. Happily, we got there around 10:00 and before
the crowd in the afternoon. Rich and the
kids played in the water until noon, when we had a picnic lunch and began to
straighten things out to get on the road
to Lake Allatoona the next morning.
