Great Smokey Mountains NP

March 29 - April 3, 2025

I drove from Tallulah Falls to Smokey Mountains National Park on Saturday, March 29. It was an easy journey under cloudy skies, much better than the showers that were forecast for much of the day. I prefer dry roads for driving. I entered the park from the south on Route 441, going through a street filled with souvenir shops in Cherokee. I arrived at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center just after 5PM, minutes after it had closed, then made my way a few miles up the road to Smokemont Campground.

Being a Saturday night, the campground looked to be almost full. Most of the approximately sixty sites in Loops A, B, and C were already occupied. There are three other loops (D, E, and F) that will not open until May. They have about one hundred additional campsites. I walked around the campground familiarizing myself with the layout. On Sunday, the campground almost emptied out. It was surprising, a remarkable contrast. There were campers at only eight sites on Sunday night.

I liked the campground instantly, and it grew on me more each day. Bradley Fork, a medium-sized tributary of the Oconaluftee River, runs right through the campground. With the rain we had on Monday night, the river was running strong. The sound of it flowing was magical, a background music that was both strong and peaceful, a theme song for my stay here.

The campground is heavily treed. Many, perhaps most, appear to be old trees, pine and beech I was told. There were also a lot of dead trees, ranging from those recently cut to mossy, decaying old logs that seemed they had been there for a very long time. Many were rotting and were covered with moss. There was an abundance of tree stumps. Looking down at one freshly cut, it struck me as if it were a painting, with imperfect symmetry and geometric curves. That was inspiring and I ended up taking photographs of about thirty other stumps, as if each were a work of art.

On one of my walks, I was returning from a short trail on the other side of the river. The trail crosses the river on a bridge constructed of logs that have been split down the middle. It’s two logs wide. It is narrow, about 20” at its widest, and about forty yards long. One side of the bridge has a simple handrail built out of branches that are about 3-4” in diameter. The bridge bounces some when one steps along the middle of it.

 As I stepped off the bridge, I was happily surprised to see an Elk grazing just about fifteen yards away. I stepped back onto the bridge. I began to take photos of them. This elk was one of about twenty that had been walking around the campground. They each wandered slowly past my position on the log bridge, many of them stopped to look at me. I said hello.

I learned from a campground host, Joy, that elk had been re-introduced to Smokey Mountain NP sometime around 2000. They had disappeared completely. Now there are two main herds and a total of about two hundred elk. Joy was excited to be here. She had just set up a few days before with her camper-trailer. It is the first time she has hosted, but she has been living in the area and visiting the park for eons. It sounded like a dream-come-true to be a campground host here.

Tuesday was the best weather day of the five I was here. It was sunny, warm, and slight of wind. I picked the day for a bike ride to Mount Kuwohi (formerly known as Clingman’s Dome.) The first segment is thirteen miles from the campground (2200’ elevation) to Newfound Gap (5000’). I stopped there and took photos of the scenery. One photo shows the road I had just climbed appearing as a curve climbing though a mountain of trees, a forest of grey and green.

There is a sign at Newfound Gap marking the Tennessee-North Carolina border. I have a photo of me, in front of that sign, from a trip I did to the Smokies around 2005. I wanted to have a new photo in the same spot.

There was a woman and two of her kids at the sign. She was taking a selfie of the three of them. I offered to take photos for them, she said yes that would be great, then she took some of me with my camera. They were from Chicago. She was visibly thrilled to be here in the mountains. She called it medicine, smiling and saying it in a way that was convincing.

The second segment of the ride rises seven miles to a parking lot near the top (6400’). One can walk a trail to the top, which adds another two hundred feet or so altitude. Along much of the road there are sweeping views of several ridges through the mountains.

The ride was quite steep from miles four to ten in particular. It was hard work, harder than I expected. By mile five, I had some initial concerns about my prospect for success. In the big picture, I just needed to get warmed up, and overall, it just felt good. Having a hard workout is a good thing to do. When you arrive at the top, you don’t even remember it was that hard. Riding down was a scream, but I kind of have a rule: once I reach thirty-five MPH I hit the brakes some, especially on unfamiliar roads.

I talked a few times with a couple with a white camper van. They were on a two month trip that took them from home base near Knoxville down to Gulf Shores in Alabama, Fort Pickens in Florida, then down farther south along the Gulf Coast.  We learned that we spent a few days overlapping at Fort Pickens, but we did not meet there.

Two women camped next to me from Sunday through Wednesday. They were originally from upper New York State, now living in the Atlanta area. They had a Subaru and a good size REI tent. They loved to camp here and were fun to talk with daily. They gave me some fresh, homemade banana bread, too! They had books. One of them was a librarian!