The Healing Totem Pole - Glacier Bay National Park

For several decades, the park service and the indigenous people of Glacier Bay were at odds regarding almost everything about the park from historical interpretation to indigenous fishing rights. A great deal of acrimony and mistrust arose in almost every interaction between park management and the tribe. That all began to change in 1995 when park management and the Hoona Indian Association signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to work together and restore the Huna to Glacier Bay. Park management and tribal elders have found several issues on which they agree or at least can make compromises to move forward on shared goals.

Quoting from the Glacier Bay National Park website:

Yaa Naa Néx Kootéeyaa (Yah Nah NEX Koo-TEA-Uh), the Healing Totem Pole, stands at the head of the public dock in Bartlett Cove, Glacier Bay National Park. Designed by tribal elders, culture bearers, artists and National Park Service staff, it compresses centuries of history into 20 feet of yellow cedar. It tells the story of the evolving relationship between the National Park Service and the Hoonah Indian Association, the federally recognized tribal government of the Huna Tlingit clans. Mixing traditional form line design and modern artistic representations, it depicts the Huna Tlingit’s tragic migration from Glacier Bay Homeland, a painful period of alienation, and more recent collaborative efforts between the tribe and the NPS. The Healing Totem Pole was specifically designed not only to relate the difficult history between NPS and the Huna Tlingit, but also to relay the history of people working to overcome past hurts and heal.

We had the distinct honor to hear the story of the Healing Totem Pole from Darlene See, a member of the Hoona Indian Association. After the presentation, she took questions and explained more of the history and culture of the five clans that inhabitated what is now the park since "time immemorial". If you ever have the opportunity to hear her or interact with her in any capacity, I advise taking advantage of it as you will leave the encounter enriched. We visited the park in August, 2022.

The quotation above is from https://www.nps.gov/glba/learn/historyculture/healing-totem-pole.htm.

There is no entrance fee at Glacier Bay National Park.

The Glacier Bay National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/glba/index.htm.

Whale Exhibit - Glacier Bay National Park

Approximately 90% of visitors to Glacier Bay National Park arrive and depart on cruise ships. They don't have an opportunity to leave their ships to hike or kayak anywhere in the park. Unlike those visitors, we had a chance to walk around the Bartlett Cove area of the park. 

Located under a large roof on the Tlingit Trail between the lodge and the public dock is an exhibit of a humpback whale skeleton. The story of this exhibit is fascinating to me.

In 2001, a pregnant humpback whale known as Snow was hit by a cruise ship and died. After the body was washed ashore, students and other volunteers helped the park service retrieve and clean her bones to create the humpback skeleton display. Researchers have confirmed that Snow was 44 years old, 45 1/2 feet long, and weighed 35 tons.

A note on one of the interpretive displays notes: "A legal settlement with the cruise line that struck Snow helped fund this exhibit."

View from the rear on the trail from the lodge to the dock

Mouth and head

Spine, ribs, and flippers

There is no entrance fee at Glacier Bay National Park.

The Glacier Bay National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/glba/index.htm.

Bartlett Cove Visitor Center - Glacier Bay National Park

We traveled to Alaska in late August 2022 to experience the six national parks that we had not visited on our previous trips to Alaska in 2005 and 2010. Our first stop was at Glacier Bay National Park where we stayed in motel-type rooms at the Bartlett Cove Lodge. Noting that the visitor center was directly above the dining room, it was the first place I explored. Being upstairs, the visitor center did not seem to be accessible to guests in wheelchairs. There may be an elevator somewhere, but I didn't see it. The visitor center has the customary information desk, bookstore/giftshop, exhibit area, and theater. The theater was closed during our visit. Whether this was due to COVID-19 restrictions or short staffing, I do not know. The visitor center did have one unique addition in that it had a reading room with comfortable seating and a large collection of books. Accessible restrooms are available on the ground floor of the lodge.

During the season that the lodge is open, the visitor center is only staffed from 11 AM until 1 PM. The exhibit area and reading room in the visitor center are open from 6 AM until 10 PM. Visitor information is available all day from rangers stationed at the ranger station near the public use dock about 600 feet east of the lodge. 

Information Desk

Reference material

Reading room

View east from the reading room

Locked merchandise racks

Pacific Coast exhibits

More coastal exhibits

Glacial carving exhibits

Icy Strait exhibits

Lower Bay exhibits

Upper Bay exhibits

Muir Inlet exhibits

Bartlett Cove exhibits

There is no entrance fee at Glacier Bay National Park.

The Glacier Bay National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/glba/index.htm.

Gravel Roads - Cades Cove - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Besides the paved 11-mile scenic loop drive, there are several gravel roads in Cades Cove that also provide scenic views. The roads include two-way Sparks Lane, Hyatt Lane, and Forge Cree Road, as well as one-way roads leaving the park such as Parsons Branch Road and Rich Mountain Road. Here are views from a few of them. We visited Cades Cove in mid-August 2022.

Mill Creek near the Whitehead Place on Forge Creek Road

View from Hyatt Lane

Another view from Hyatt Lane

Methodist Church in Cades Cove from Rich Mountain Road

Closer view of the Methodist Church

View of Horseshoe Ridge across Cades Cove 

View of the Foothills mostly outside the park from Rich Mountain Road

There is no entrance fee at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. However, a parking fee will be levied beginning March 1, 2023. The fee will be $5 for a daily tag, $15 for a seven-day tag, and $40 for an annual tag.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm.

Henry Whitehead Place - Cades Cove - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The Henry Whitehead Place is located on the gravel Forge Creek Road in the Cades Cove area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It currently consists of two cabins and a smokehouse. There once was a barn onsite as well. The surrounding forest was likely row crop and pasture land. A small garden was probably located somewhere near the cabins. The story of the cabins is both a sad and a happy one. The smaller, older, rougher cabin in the rear was hastily built by Dave, George, and Zack Shields in 1881 to provide shelter for their sister Matilda Shields Gregory after her husband, Ebeneezer Gregory, abandoned her and their son. In 1882, Matilda acquired the title to 50 acres of land surrounding her cabin from her brothers. In 1887, she married Henry Whitehead, a local carpenter. Sometime during the period 1895 to 1898, he built the larger story-and-a-half cabin immediately in front of the old cabin utilizing the newest construction techniques including square log walls instead of round logs that required chinking and a brick chimney instead of a stone one. The park is left with examples of the worst and best construction techniques of the day in one compact site.

North

West

Another view from the west

West and south

Smokehouse

East

There is no entrance fee at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. However, a parking fee will be levied beginning March 1, 2023. The fee will be $5 for a daily tag, $15 for a seven-day tag, and $40 for an annual tag.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm.

Cable Mill - Cades Cove - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

John P. Cable built this overshot grist mill in the late 1860s. It is the only mill remaining of several mills operated in Cades Cove before the national park was created. The mill is located near the Cades Cove Visitor Center about halfway around the eleven-mile one-way loop road that circles the cove.

An overshot mill utilizes a flume to redirect water from the stream to the mill. In this case, a long ditch leads to a 225-foot-long flume to bring the water from Mill Creek to a point above the 11-foot wheel and pour it into "buckets" built into the wheel. The water in the wheel causes a weight imbalance, forcing the wheel to turn. A series of gears, originally built of apple wood but later rebuilt with metal, is used to spin the runner stone just a fraction of an inch above the bed stone. By varying the distance between the two stones, the miller could create various grades of his product from cracked corn to corn meal to corn flour. Corn was the primary crop ground here, although some wheat may also have been ground. The miller was typically paid a one-eighth portion of the cornmeal that was produced.

Some of the blueprints created for the 2018 reconstruction of the water wheel

Flume and water wheel

View down the flume to the mill

Cades Cove Visitor Center

There is no entrance fee at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. However, a parking fee will be levied beginning March 1, 2023. The fee will be $5 for a daily tag, $15 for a seven-day tag, and $40 for an annual tag.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm.

Cades Cove - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

We returned to Cades Cove, one of our favorite places, again in August 2022. While we didn't see much in the way of wildlife, the scenery didn't disappoint. 

There is no entrance fee at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. However, a parking fee will be levied beginning March 1, 2023. The fee will be $5 for a daily tag, $15 for a seven-day tag, and $40 for an annual tag.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm.

Clingmans Dome - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

In mid-August 2022, we looked for a cooler hike in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We found it at Clingmans Dome on the Tennessee-North Carolina border. We drove up the Newfound Gap Road (US 441) from the Sugarlands Visitor Center in Gatlinburg, Tennessee to the state line at Newfound Gap and then drove just a bit farther to the seven-mile Clingmans Dome Road and followed it to its end in a large, but often full parking lot. The parking lot has over 140 passenger-vehicle spaces including six handicap-accessible spaces. There is no parking for motor homes, trailers, or other oversized vehicles.

After finding a place to park, we walked to the trailhead at the west end of the parking lot. This was the only level part of the hike. Upon reaching the trailhead, the paved trail ascends at about a 10% grade. At the summit, a curving ramp leads to a tower that provides an elevated overlook. Unfortunately for us, the tower was mostly in the clouds when we visited. However, we had some good views from the trail.

Ben Morton Overlook on Newfound Gap Road

View from Newfound Gap Overlook

Another view from the gap

View from the Clingmans Dome parking lot toward Fontana Lake

View from the trail as the clouds roll in

Typical trail conditions

Clingmans Dome Tower

Very limited visibility from the tower

View just three minutes later

Clouds begin to obscure this view from the parking lot

View from Collins Gap pullout on Clingmans Dome Road

View from another pullout on Clingmans Dome Road

View from the Luftee Overlook on Newfound Gap Road

There is no entrance fee at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. However, a parking fee will be levied beginning March 1, 2023. The fee will be $5 for a daily tag, $15 for a seven-day tag, and $40 for an annual tag.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park website is https://www.nps.gov/grsm/index.htm.