Lots more driving today! Had planned to stop in Nashville for breakfast at least, but the city was quite overrun, and after driving around for a while, I decided to stop at a little diner just outside of the city instead. Against all odds, I’d been able to book a campsite in the Park the night before, and as I got closer I realized exactly how lucky I had been. Traffic slowed to a stop just after Knoxville area, and it finally dawned on me that it was the Friday of Memorial Day weekend. Seemed like the entire country was on that road with me!
I’d punched in Gatlinburg as my destination, thinking I’d stop there for lunch, since it was so close to the park entrance, but my gps claimed it would take 7 hours to get there from where I was, but after removing that stop, and routing around the town, it recalculated to 17 minutes! Strangely enough, it seems it’s Gatlinburg, and the Dollywood theme park, which is the true crowd drawer, as the Great Smokies actually wasn’t that bad! Beautiful place as well, I was staying on the east end of it, and the drive through was delightful.
Lots of wildlife to see as well, tons of what I assume were turkeys all along the side of the road, and after rolling down my windows, I was treated to lovely birdsong for the rest of the drive. Also made a stop so that I could say I had technically set foot on this:
Finally made it to my campsite, Smokemont, just as the sun was starting to go down, but luckily I’ve gotten pretty quick at setting up camp, so after tending to that, I went for my final, and favorite, hike off the day. No fireflies sadly, but it was still gorgeous.
Slept quite well that night, and on the way out in the morning, I got treated to one last wildlife viewing. Some elk were munching on grass and leaves, and all the cars passing pulled over to let them pass, and to take pictures of course! Took it as a good sign for the day, and so I was off to Shenandoah!
Where’s George? 