I went to Gatlinburg to spend a week with family touring the area. By far, it is the Great Smoky Mountain National Park (GSMNP) that has been my favorite part of the trip. The towns around here are geared to tourists, which makes sense, but they seem to cater more to the tourist shoppers or folks attracted to wax museums, believe it or not museums, etc. Not necessarily bad things but, having seen some of those in the past, that is no longer what I seek to experience when seeing a new area. I could come to this part simply to enjoy nature and skip the towns happily.
The Great Smoky Mountain National Park – Human Stories
The GSMNP, however, is exactly what I seek to experience. As in my trip to Tasmania, discovering “new” types of nature is something I enjoy, even if on this trip I am not able to go on longer hikes than 30 minutes would fit. As my parents are with us, they can only do fairly flat hikes and nothing that takes more than 45 mins round trip (or so). Fortunately, the GSMNP can be enjoyed by everyone as there are many types of stops, short hikes, scenery along the road, and even great history.
As a lover of history, getting exposed to that along with great scenery is a fantastic combination and use of my time (if I focus on efficiency for a sec!). The Cades Cove area and the Roaring Forks area show great examples (real, not built for the purpose) of how people lived 80-150 yrs ago in this wilderness.
The Bales farm, the John Oliver cabin, the Cable Mill, the various churches in Cades Cove, etc. are all great examples of the type of life that took place here in times long gone. Life here was hard though one can over-romanticize it in these times of concrete cities, 100mph lifestyles, etc. Everything seems very peaceful – yet these folks had to work day and night to survive. I especially enjoyed looking at how the structures were constructed following methods no longer in use, even in wooden frame houses. These structures still stand today as witnesses to a not-too-distant past that seems ages ago…
The Great Smoky Mountain National Park – Nature
Besides seeing these testaments to a life long gone by, the area is loaded with trails, picnic areas, streams, and places in nature to explore. A good map from the National Park staff will do you a lot of good, trust me!
From the house we rented on a mountaintop overlooking Gatlinburg, we can see the GSMNP and it is amazing how at every time of the day, we get a different view as the sun moves across the sky and hits the mountains at different angles. It is simply breathtaking.
And if you look carefully around the deck of the house, you may even get to see a rabbit… or a black bear.
