Rich Mountain Road - Cades Cove - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Anytime during the year, only Laurel Creek Road provides access to to Cades Cove on the Tennessee side of Great Smoky Mountains National  Park. During winter, that is also the only way out of the cove. However, two other roads provide an exit from the cove during part of the year. Both of these roads are one-way with a gravel surface and are not suitable for oversized vehicles. Parsons Branch Road is open from late May until late November and leaves the cove to the south and US 129. Rich Mountain Road is open from early April until late November and leaves the cove to the north and Townsend.

Rich Mountain Road starts west of Hyatt Lane near the Cades Cove Missionary Baptist Church on the one-way, paved Cades Cove Loop Road. The seven mile road climbs to Rich Mountain Gap and the park boundary. Beyond the park, the two-way and paved road is known as Old Cades Cove Road. We drove out Rich Mountain Road on our late October 2022 visit to Cades Cove in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Typical road conditions

Cades Cove from the first overlook

Another view of Cades Cove

Cades Cove Methodist Church with Cobb Ridge on the far side of the valley

A closer view of the church and cemetery

Another view of Cades Cove and Cobb Ridge from the first overlook

View from the second overlook

A closer view of the backbone of the Smokies

The third overlook

View from the third overlook of ridges outside the park

A closer view

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

In late October 2022, we returned to one of our favorite places in the world, Cades Cove, to see the autumn colors. The Cades Cove Loop Road is a one-way eleven-mile paved lane that encircles the valley known as Cades Cove.

We arrived too late in the day to hike the Abrams Falls Trail, but we did stop at the trailhead and observed Abrams Creek for a few moments.

John Oliver Cabin below Double Mountain and Cerulean Knob

Gregory Ridge

Pole Knob and Cobb Ridge

Another view of Cobb Ridge

Thunderhead Mountain (center) behind Anthony Ridge (left) and Leadbetter Ridge (right)

Tater Ridge

Mowed fields

Another view of Cobb Ridge

Another view of Anthony Ridge and Leadbetter Ridge

Red leaves and brown fields frame Cobb Ridge

Abrams Falls Trailhead kiosk

Pedestrian bridge over Abrams Creek

View upstream from the bridge

Low flow below the bridge

A small ripple

Still water above the bridge

Looking back at the bridge from the Wet Bottom Trail

View downstream from the bridge

Abrams Creek from the Abrams Falls Trail

Deer grazing in a field

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.

Carkeek Park - City of Seattle

On our September 2022 drive south from the North Cascades to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, we stopped at Carkeek Park in Seattle for a picnic lunch. The park moved to its current location on Puget Sound in 1928 from another site in Seattle. The park was named for Morgan J. Carkeek. The park has many amenities including walking trails, a playground, picnic tables with grills, restrooms, and water fountains.

After lunch, we crossed over the BNSF Railway on a pedestrian bridge that was built in 1955 to the Carkeek Park Beach. From the beach, we could see the Kitsap Penninsula and the Olympic Mountains.

Keyboard crosswalk

Pedestrian bridge over BNSF Railway

View north from the bridge

View southwest from the bridge

The Olympic Mountains tower over the Kitsap Penninsula

View north from the beach

View southwest from the beach

Small waves lapping at the shore

A bit of snow remains on the Olympic Mountains

Sailboat in the channel

The Highlands, Shoreline, Washington

Southbound BNSF train from the pedestrian bridge

A final view from the picnic tables

There is no entry fee at Carkeek Park.

The park webpage is https://www.seattle.gov/parks/find/parks/carkeek-park.

Washington Pass Observation Site - Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest

It was after dark when we turned off of Washington Route 20, the North Cascades Scenic Highway, at mile marker 162.3 and onto NF 500. The half-mile paved forest service road ends at a parking lot with spaces for over 50 vehicles, including buses and RVs. Vault toilets are also provided. 

The trail to the observation site leaves from the eastern end of the parking lot. Taking the right fork, the Washington Pass Trail #585 is an ADA-accesssible, paved trail of about 500 feet that leads to a large, fenced rectangular rock ledge of about 20 feet by 30 feet. 

The ledge is the Washington Pass Observation Site. It is fairly smooth, but not level as it angles down to the southwest. Even with a nearly full moon rising, a flashlight was essential to seeing and avoiding dips or rises that could twist an ankle or even cause a fall along the trail and especially on the ledge. The trail continues from the northern corner of the ledge back to the parking lot for a ¼-mile loop, but we chose to walk back the way we came and avoid the stairs on the loop portion in the dark. We stopped on our September 2022 visit to the North Cascades National Park.

Kangaroo Ridge (8183')

Early Winters Spires (7807') and Liberty Bell Mountain

A closer view of the Liberty Bell Group

The moon was just rising over Kangaroo Ridge

Another view of Kangaroo Ridge

There is no parking or other fee at Washington Pass Observation Site.

The Washington Pass Observation Site webpage is https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/okawen/recarea/?recid=59493.