The Great Smoky Mountains National Park Area

Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

There are only a few roads through this park. Most of the Park is best accessed by horseback or on foot. I have no way of knowing what I missed, so I will focus on what I saw.



This small waterfall was a 0.3 mile hike from the parking lot. Along the trail were frequent wildflowers.



The road through the park has many vistas, particularly on the side road to Clingman’s Dome.



My second campsite a the Great Smokies was more to the west, near the Tennessee border on the edge of a reservoir.



Tail of the Dragon

Route 129 crosses from North Carolina to Tennessee along the southern edge of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It twists and turns and rises and falls so much that it has become known as the Tail Of The Dragon. It is a motorcycle Mecca and if you drive it in a car, you are sure to find yourself in front of and behind bikers riding the road for the sheer fun of it.


To the southeast, Route 129 parallels the Cheoah River. I came to this area expecting to see exciting white water on the Nantahala River. I found the white water on the Cheoah. These photos at Bear Creek Falls are three out of 142 shots that I trimmed to 90. There are three paths through the falls. The far side has a 10’ vertical drop. The middle path divides the drop into two sections. While once I could have handled the first drop, the second is larger and dumps the bow of your boat into a very strong cross current. I would not have made it in an open canoe. The kayaks completely disappeared in the foam in this area. The near path was the run taken by most of the rafts. That is the run I would have taken. I think I could have made it as recently as 10 years ago. I was told that the drop is rated Class IV. I think that may be true on the right but the other two drops sure look like Class V to me.






To the south of the Park, in the Nantahala National Forest, is the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. This is a delightful old growth forest with some really big trees, a short trail system and chuckling streams dancing their way downhill over the rocks.


















The Joyce Kilmer area and Bear Creek Falls are the images that will stay with me as I continue north. These up-close views were unusual to me, while the broad vistas will be frequent along the Blue Ridge Parkway.