American Travel Journal: National Park

Showing posts with label National Park. Show all posts

Monday, September 7, 2020

Cades Cove - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

We continued our late April 2019 visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with a scenic drive around Cades Cove. From the Townsend Wye, drive southwest 7½ miles on Laurel Creek Road to the beginning of the 11-mile one-way Cades Cove Loop Road. Shortly after leaving the Wye, the second paved parking area provides access to 10-foot-high West Prong Falls. We drove most of the way around the loop before taking the gravel Sparks Lane north across the cove back to near the beginning of the loop road. We then left Cades Cove by way of the gravel Rich Mountain Road by turning right beyond Hyatt Lane but immediately before the Cades Cove Missionary Baptist Church. We exited the park at Rich Mountain Gap and descended into Townsend, Tennessee.

West Prong Falls beside the road into Cades Cove

Horseshoe Ridge, Pole Knob, and Cobb Ridge from the John Oliver Cabin trail

A variety of trees grow along an old fence row

John P Cable Grist Mill

A large meadow adjacent to the parking area at the grist mill

Another large meadow

Canadian Geese

Gregory Bald, High Point, and Sugar Cove Ridge from Sparks Lane

Pole Knob from Sparks Lane

Cades Cove from Rich Mountain Road

Methodist Church and cemetery

Dogwoods in bloom

Chilhowee Mountain

Entry to Great Smoky Mountains National Park is free.

The park website is https://www.nps.gov/grsm.

Saturday, September 5, 2020

The Sinks - Little River - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

In late April 2019, we had the chance to spend a day on the Tennessee side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Our first stop was at The Sinks in the Little River Gorge about 5¾ miles upstream from the Townsend Wye or two miles downstream from the Metcalf Bottoms picnic area. The Sinks is a ten-foot-high cascade on the Little River and is immediately adjacent to Little River Gorge Road. A small paved parking area holds about a dozen vehicles. It is often filled to capacity. I've posted about The Sinks twice before documenting visits in December 2015 and March 2017. The river flow on this visit was lower than either of the previous visits.

View from the parking lot

View from the trail leading to the observation point

View from the observation point

View from below the observation point

We crossed the road at the entrance to the parking lot and walked upstream enjoying delightful views of the river.

Upstream of The Sinks

A series of rapids upstream of The Sinks

The river is almost obscured by the foliage

View looking upstream

Entry to Great Smoky Mountains National Park is free.

The park website is https://www.nps.gov/grsm.

Monday, August 24, 2020

Alum Cave Trail part 2: Arch Rock to Gracie's Pulpit - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

I continued my late November 2018 hike on the Alum Cave Trail from Arch Rock past Alum Cave and on to the halfway point at Gracie's Pulpit before returning to the trailhead on Newfound Gap Road.

Alum Cave is not an actual cave, but rather a concave bluff about 80 feet high and 500 feet long. It was the site of mining operations from 1838 to1854 by the Epsom Salts Manufacturing Company. During the Civil War, Confederate troops mined saltpeter for use in the manufacturing of gunpowder.

The Alum Cave Trail is a steep route with an average gradient of over 10% from the trailhead to Gracie's Pulpit. It has numerous stairs and steep dropoffs in some places. A couple of stream crossings require rock hopping, but most have a log footbridge. Several crossings near the trailhead have planked bridges wide enough to meet other hikers. Portions of the trail were rebuilt during 2015 and 2016 by a Trails Forever crew.

Part 1 covering the trail from the trailhead to Arch Rock can be found here.