Smokey the Bear

The first time I ever visited the Smokey Mountains National Park during the busy summer season was in 2006. The traffic was very slow, especially around Pigeon Forge and Cade's Cove. The traffic, coupled with our usually late start meant that we didn't arrive to walk the trails until the early evening. We decided to hike the Laurel falls trail. The hike is relatively easy, with the trail up to the falls being roughly paved, and the grade up the mountain not to steep. The falls lie 1.3 miles along the trail, and provide a pleasant blast of cool air, as the trail passes over a bridge in front of them.

We continued along the trail beyond the falls wanting to reach the old growth forest at about 2 miles. Very few people hike beyond the falls, though the are is beautiful, with Giant Tulip Poplar, Maple, and Great white oaks. just as we were reaching the area of maple, we stopped to investigate one tree's unusual flowers. as we were using our Audubon book to determine the species of the tree, because we are die hard nerds, I'm afraid, we heard a loud scraping behind us. Spinning around we saw, climbing a giant tulip just 10 yards away, a large black bear! Of course, we'd left our camera at home. This bear was very close. We believe he must have been waiting for us to turn our backs so he could get a good start up the tree. He was absolutely silent until his paws started gripping the rough bark. He climbed about 80feet straight up into what was probably about 100-110 ft tree. He stop at the tree's first branch, and surveying the area, looked right down at us, as if to say "You wouldn't dare come after me up here". Then he climbed down into the top portion of the thick trunk, which was hollow. Apparently, he was going to sleep for the night. It was only 5:30, but maybe he had a busy day. This is one of the closest encounters I've ever had with a large wild animal, and certainly the closest I've been to any that might eat meat.

To add a little icing to our cake, we also saw a coyote standing in the road as we were leaving the park, which I had never seen before, despite growing up in the country. The Smokey Mountains are one of those areas which a wonderful to visit any time of year.

The Fiery Gizzard

One weekend in the spring of 2006 my husband and I took upon ourselves the task of hiking the Fiery Gizzard, a trail in the South Cumberland Recreation Area of Tennessee. The trail provides a 17 mile trail through varying terrain. We parked a car at each end, and, beginning at the Grundy Forest end, took an overnight hike. The trail in April was warm and pleasant, without the oppressive heat and humidity that comes May through August. We walked along the sunlit trail, frequently following a stream, as willow snow drifted lazily through the air. We discovered on this hike the need for boots in the future as we crossed large sections of pumpkin sized rocks, which resulted in sore soles and aching ankles. Crossing one such section, we startles an owl from a branch but were unable to make out what kind it was as it flew off into the forest. The rocks also put on a show, with formations called the Fruit Bowl, and Chimney Rock. Along the way we also spotted snakes and deer, and a myriad of wild flowers in bloom. Finally after a slow and lazy day of hiking, we made the steep ascent to the ridge line and pitched our tent at Raven Point. Not long after pitching our tent and putting some canned chili to heat on the camp stove (no fires are allowed in the campsite) we had a visitor. A black and white hunting dog came into camp to investigate, and demand that he be scratched. Our friend stayed with us even after we had gone to bed, curling up outside the tent door. When we awoke late in the night, due to nothing more than the shear brightness of a full moon in a dark sky, we found our friend had left us.

In the morning, we had the greater part of the trail still before us, but this section was much easier, as it was not riddled with boulder fields. This section winds primarily along the top of the ridge, across farmland the through the woods. A farmhouse is actually quite close to the Raven Point campsite, which is probably where our dog friend came from. Other than a jogger early in the morning, we had the trail mostly to ourselves. There are many overlooks and some beautiful waterfalls. The only difficult section of this trail is when it drops to cross a gorge with a small stream and tall trees in it, then steeply rises to the ridge top again. Beyond this gorge we began to run into the weekend crowds visiting Foster Falls. Finally, we had reached the other end of our journey.

This hike is well worth it, though it would be significantly easier if hiked in the opposite direction. The Fiery Gizzard is a popular trail, both in TN and the US in general. It is covers a variety of terrain, and gives a good idea of what middle Tennessee is like. Beautiful in the spring, it is also popular as a fall, and even winter trail. A+

Gatlinburg: Old Timey Photo Capital of the World!

I have been to visit Gatlinburg and the Smokey
Mountains on several different occasions, but this year I decided to visit in the month of December, when the little tourist town is decked in its finest.

Along the way, we stopped at the Stonehaus Winery off I-40 partway between Nashville and Knoxville. After stopping by the gift shop and picking up some tasty mint chocolate fudge, we went to the tasting counter and sampled the wines. I am by no means a wine connoisseur. I really don't like most wine. Some of the selections at Stonehaus were rather good. After trying nearly everything they had, including some fantastic mulled wine, we settled on a bottle of tart blackberry wine.

We arrived in the early afternoon at the Gazebo Inn, where we had booked a room online, seeing that it was one of the cheapest rooms to be had within walking distance of all the glorious tackiness of the main street of town. At $56 a night for two, we found the room to be a good value. The exterior is very quaint, and the rooms, though somewhat small, are comfortable. The bathtub in our particular room looked a bit shabby, and the lighting in the bathroom was poor, but those are my only complaints.

After checking on the room, we headed off to walk about, in a light rain that had begun. The town is a browser's paradise, and is loaded to the brim with kitsch. 80% of the shops specialize in Christmas decorations, fudge, or taking a sepia colored Old Timey Photo of you in full cowboy/saloon girl wear. We shopped the stores, browsing with an ornament in mind. Finally, as dinner time approached we picked a place to eat. We

finally settled on the Smokey Mountain Brewery, set just off the main drag behind Calhoun's. We enjoyed our steaks a good deal. Though I am also not a beer drinker, I was intrigued by their beer sampler, which might be a fun treat for anyone who does enjoy different beers.

Once we had eaten, it was back out onto the now dark streets, and the innumerable Christmas lights, in search of the perfect ornament. We stopped at a candy shop to try a few different truffles, and a peanut butter filled, sea shell shaped chocolate. We visited an art store in the mall, where almost everything is locally produced, and we listened to the carolers, who were dressed in colonial style velvet outfits. We finally found what we were looking for at the Christmas Tree, a little store selling nothing but ornaments, tucked into a corner of the shopping area known as The Village. Mission accomplished, we returned to our hotel as the light rain continued to fall, and the temperatures dropped.

When we awoke in the morning, for what we intended to be a day of hiking, it was snowing, though it wasn't sticking. We left immediately to drive out New Found Gap Road, which crosses the mountains. As we headed up, the snow progressed to sticking to the leaves, to sticking to the trees and bark, until eventually we reached an area where the snow was covering the road. At this point we We finally settled on the Alamo, where we ate a solid meal, and deciding to splurge a bit, we decided to get some dessert. We had an ice cream filled tortilla, which was fried, and served with cool whip and cinnamon. While it was good, it wasn't worth the price, and I don't

think I would order it again. We drove around a bit, and stopped in a few out of the way shops, before finally deciding that it was time to make the long drive home.
were forced to stop by a line of cars, and turning around, we came back down through the blowing snow. Turning left at the visitor's center, we headed down Little River Road to take a drive around Cade's Cove. Despite the cold and the snow, there were many deer out and about grazing. Finally getting out fill of the white wonderland, we headed back into town for something to eat.

Forks and Honey

8:54 AM - Honey Creek Loop, Big South Fork River, TN

I first decided to visit this trail because of its mention in Hiking Tennessee by Kelley Roark, and it is definitely a new favorite of mine. The loop is 5.6 miles long, but it is bisected by a road, with parking lots at the top and the bottom of the loop. We started at the top of the loop, which is located at an overlook of the Big South Fork River. From there we left towards the Indian Rock House loop. First we descended 3 steep steel ladders, taking us much closer to the river. Technically, this is part of the inner loop, so we had to turn left to take the main trail a little beyond this point, just before a small cascade falling over the cliff face. The trail then turns almost immediately away from the river, to follow Honey Creek.

The creek ranges from 5-10 feet wide, and cascades over, under, and through the boulders which lay in its path. The water is blue-green, but is clear where the water is less than a foot deep. The path closely follows the creek, occasionally crossing it, and once, forcing us to walk up it, thought a narrow gorge. The path, like the creek, also goes over and under the boulders, several times leading us through small tunnels, where even I had to stoop a little.

The Indian Rock houses were caves in the face of the cliff by the creek. The first one we came to was the most fantastic. The entrance to this one was not level with the ground. First you have to climb a wooden ladder up about 10ft, into the opening. It is very large inside, and has a more sheltered area where the cave winds back to the right. There were about 3 more rock houses that the trail takes you to after that, all of them level with the ground, some larger, but none of which are quite as interesting as the first. The trail then winds up onto the ridge top, then finally cuts back to the creek and down. Along this segment there are 3 notable waterfalls.

Honey Creek Falls requires the hiker to take a very short spur trail, which is entirely worth it. The water falls about 15ft, into a deep blue green pool, with cliff walls surrounding it in a semicircle.

Boulder House Falls consists of 2 huge boulders (about 15, maybe 20ft) making an upside down V. at the back of the V, the water cascades about 5 feet to the "floor" of the house, which is a flat, solid rock, and spreads out to be only an inch or so deep inside the house.

Ice Castle Falls is the tallest of the three. It is a narrow stream of water falling over the cliff ledge.

After this, the trail begins its ascent to the parking lot at the lower end of the loop, and winds its way through what used to be a pine forest. The Pine trees are now all dead where they stand, because of this, and especially because many of them are quite tall, walking this portion on a windy day could be dangerous, as the trees could fall at any time, and indeed, we were continually crawling over and under trees that had fallen across the trail. The upshot to this was that we did see a Pileated Woodpecker which is about the size of a crow with a distinctive red comb on its head. I had never seen one of these before, so that was exciting for me. Finally we reached the bottom parking lot, and used the connecting road to get back to our car, rather than complete the loop, because it was starting to get dark, since we had started fairly late.

Some other bonus features: The lower part of the trail around the creek is otherworldly, surrounded by rhododendrons, mossy rocks, and ferns; The rock is sandstone, not the limestone which is so typical in TN, providing some unexpected color; the water is very cold, causing much of the trail to feel air-conditioned... very nice. A+