Great Smoky Mountains

As promised I had John download/upload all the photos he took while we were in Tennessee and here are the highlights.

This waterfall area is called "The Sinks" on the Little River.  This river runs along the Northwest edge of the park and is paralleled by a twisty two lane road that takes you to the Sugarland Visitors Center.

The water as you can see is running quite fast and is a favorite for kayakers but The Sinks are not to be messed with.  Locals tell me that several people are injured or killed each year.

As the river runs along the edge of the road you are amazed of how clear, turquoise and shallow it is.  Because there is so must ground cover and it is well anchored it does not wash into the river and cloud it.  There are areas along the road where you can pull over and put your waders on and fly fish for Brown Trout (which is the native fish in these waters) with Rainbow Trout being introduced.


 There are over 800 miles of maintained trails within the park which are well marked as well as having detailed maps available.  The park encompasses 800 square miles of land in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.

Our drive through the park was just a small taste of what is offered.  We toured one of the campgrounds (Elkmont) within the park and found that it is quite nice and can accommodate most large rigs; but it will be a tight fit.  The drive into the park with a large fifth wheel or motorhome could be tricky but I'm told it is done all the time.

We exited the park and headed Northeast to the small tourist town of Gatlinburg which is nestled between two hills/mountains along US-321.  Because Gatlinburg growth is restricted by these mountains, land is at a premium so everything is packed tightly together.  This actually makes is easy to walk around, site see, shop and find restaurants.  But parking is also at a premium so best if you find a lot (all are pay lots) park and have a look around Gatlinburg on foot. 

Lunch was the first order of business for everyone and it was decided that fish/seafood was the ticket.  Bubba Gump's Seafood Shack is right on main street (US-321) and overlooked a busy intersection for great people watching.  I was told the food was excellent but a little high in price, service was excellent as well with their server quizzing everyone about trivia from the movie Forrest Gump.

Once lunch was out of the way they all headed over to the Ole Smoky Mountain Moonshine Holler; a gathering of stores, restaurants and a distillery for making moonshine.  In the courtyard area of this Holler is a small stage where Bluegrass bands setup, play and sell their CD's.  Makes for wonderful background music while touring the shops and distillery.  John was amazed that in this building was an actual moonshine(Shine) distillery producing legal moonshine!  In fact the distillery has several people there running "the still"  to answer questions as well as a museum on the history of shine.  Because John knows a lot about NASCAR he knew that NASCAR's roots can be traced back to the moonshine runners in the 30's, 40's & 50's.  The museum had several examples of these early moonshine cars to look at up close.

The museum tour ended as most do, in the gift shop but since this is a distillery most of the gift items were of the Shine variety.  There is a sample bar where one can partake in the comsumion of Shine.  John was quite apprehensive at first since he doesn't drink much spirits but was very surprised at how smooth and easy drinking it was.  The Shine they sell there comes in four flavors; apple, peach, fruit punch and white lightening if white lightening can be called a flavor.  John tried the white lightening as well as the fruit punch and Rana tried the apple; all were very good.  John bought a large jar of fruit punch Shine and Rana bought some fruit jelly made with Shine.



Sour Mash



With their belly's full of Bubba Gump's and shopping bags full of Shine it was off to Pigeon Forge.  Located Northwest of Gatlinburg, it's an easier drive with four lane winding road all the way there.  As you pull into Pigeon Forge (from the South) you notice it looks very much like Branson, MO.  It has some of the same attractions (Titanic & Wonderworks) as well as similar ones.  Rana made the comment that she has never seen so many pancake houses so close together (nine in total); Branson dosen't have that.  Since Pigeon Forge has lots more room to build on it is much larger than Gatlinburg, so driving or taking a tolley is required to go from one attraction to another.  As there really wasn't anything special we wanted to see in Pigeon Forge other than the city itself we turned and headed home.