The Great Smoky Mountains

Apr 18 - 20.…Pigeon Forge & the Great Smoky Mountains -- Our RV park is on Walden Creek in Pigeon Forge. We were surprised to see how much ‘stuff’ is in the area between Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge. It’s a kid’s dream - everywhere you look you see some type of amusement place! The are also several musical theaters. All this AND the most visited National Park in the US - The Great Smokey Mountain National Park. One day we drove the beautiful Cade’s Cove loop where we saw many building from the early 1800’s and then made a 5 mile hike to Abrams Falls. It was a great hike with a lot of up & downs! We could either see or hear the creek all the way. Once we made it to the falls we enjoyed our packed lunch on the rocks along side the falls! On Wed & Thu we had some rain but we didn’t let that stop us. We wondered around town and drove to Clingman’s Dome which is the highest peak in the park as well as east of the Mississippi (6,643ft). On the way back down we stopped at Newfound Gap and hike for a mile or so on the Appalachian Trail. Then we had another picnic lunch along the Little Pigeon River & hiked the Cove Hardwood Forest Nature Trail. There are nearly one hundred species of trees in this forest. Did you know that the Smokies have more tree varieties than all of Europe? Today, miles of the main parkway in Pigeon Forge is lined with ‘classic cars’. There must be 100’s of them…any type of car ever made is here! There is a special event in town where collectors buy, sell & trade cars! Tomorrow we leave this area and head to a park near Salisbury, North Carolina which is south of Winston Salem and north east of Charlotte. The adventure continues…