8/27 -28 - The Living Mountains

We drove through Illinois, Kentucky, and Tennessee to stop off at Nashville for some grocery shopping since we didn't do that in Missouri. We were navigated to a crumby part of town where the only grocery store had this uncomfortable, random Middle Eastern flair, so we did what we could. They did have avocados, though - got to hand it to them.

We didn't reach the Smokies until about 2:30am and it took another half hour to the campgrounds. We must say, though, Great Smoky Mountain National Park is no slouch. The Rockies, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon all have the name and get the credit they deserve, for sure; but the Great Smoky Mountains, believe it or not, are the most visited National Park in the entire country. And after waking there the next day and driving around, it wasn't hard to understand why.

The Smokies boast the most diverse ecosystem of trees anywhere in North America and Europe combined. It seemed as though anything could grow there. The greenery was totally unreal. We both just kept repeating to each other that we'd never been anywhere greener. It was actually pretty magical, and quickly became Trista's favorite scenery of the entire journey so far. There were long stretches of highway where the trees grew together above the road, creating a canopy of foliage. And whenever the sunlight could get through it flickered across the windshield and gave us the most inspiring drive of anywhere we'd been yet.

A happy video. Who needs us to watch when there's all this. See for yourself. Don't mind the bug-ridden windshield - that's normal for cross-country travel.

The Smokies are the coziest of the parks we've now been to. The sides of the road were so crammed with lush, green trees, all standing upright, that it seemed everything in the forest was alive and breathing - there didn't appear to be many, if any, fallen or dead trees. Even the running creeks were chalk full of green mossy stones. EVERYTHING was green. There were furs, and ferns, and pines, and oaks, and maples, and tons of types of trees where leafy vines were growing up around the entire trees, wrapping even the trunks in green. It looked like a fairytale, and it makes you not want to leave. In fact, it is the one place Trista says she wants to stay a full week next time (see...cozy).

After losing another hour with the time change we rolled into our site after 3am. We set up camp in our fastest time yet (we're getting it down to a science now) and we just completely crashed. We knew we could register in the morning for the site we'd chosen and, fortunately, the Smokies weren't as full as they are known to be. The camp host came to our tent at 11:20 the next morning to let us know to check-in/out by noon, which we did.

The Great Smoky Mountains do not have many so-called "attractions" (the scenery is enough, trust us) but it can lay claim to over 900 miles of hiking trails, including the legendary Appalachian Trail that divides Tennessee and North Carolina through the middle of the park. Well, we wanted to do so many things with the limited time we had there, but in the end we managed to squeeze in the drive through Scenic Loop in Cades Cove, where we finally caught our very first wild bear sighting - a medium-sized black bear foraging berries from a tree - we didn't get very good shots of it, though; and we had fun taking a brief dip in a running stream with lots of slippery rocks beneath our feet.


Trista attempting, rather poorly, to recreate a dance move performed by Adam in "Cabaret" five years ago.

We missed Newfound Gap and the overlook Dome, where you can apparently see a glorious 360 degree view of the mountains from its highest peak. We also missed any true hiking and the cascading Laurel Falls that we wanted to see.

On the way up there is a crazy village called Gatlinburg and it is a mountain town unlike anything you've ever seen. Gatlinburg is just JAM-PACKED with hordes of touristy things to do, with a slew of different restaurants and crowded knick-knack shop-type storefronts and amusement parks (Dollywood wasn't far away), and an aquarium and a petting zoo and arcades and laser tag and speedway cars, etc., etc., etc. It was a veritable Las Vegas of the hillbilly kind. We even saw a huge, white pillared mansion turned upside down on its roof - we didn't know what that was. We entered at night when the place was still lit up like a pinball machine. We had also hoped to squeeze in some time for a bite to eat at one of its many audacious eateries before we left, but again...

The Smokies were very memorable and we highly recommend them to anyone. Our next destination is Adam's Uncle Tim's house in Hubert, North Carolina. See you then.



As we leave, everything is just "breathtaking" once again. haha