For Memorial Day, we went to the smoky mountains. We took the long way around bu going up to I40 and down passed Knoxville. Driving into Gatlinburg we could see all the burned out structures for the previous year’s fire.
It being a three day weekend, we noticed how crowded the town was. We quickly made a detour long side streets to get to Rainbow Falls . Lucky for us we found a spot right at the trailhead. We packed up quickly and were up the steady incline to the top of the falls. After arriving, it was packed with many people but we managed to find a spot for ourselves. There are many types of people from all walks of life.
We quickly made our way back to the car. On the drive, out we took the car around Orchard Drive. This was a calm and quiet driving loop through the smoky mountains.
We stopped at several old cabins near the riverside streams. Finishing out along the Roaring Fork Motor nature trail, I took some long exposure pictures of the Reagan tubmill. Finishing out the day we battled through the swarm of people in downtown Gatlinburg. Driving through Gatlinburg makes one very sad for humanity however I did not realize I could become sadder until I saw what was the town of Pigeon Forge.
Pigeon Forge is a wasteland of crap that sprung up along a 6 Lane Highway. This place shows everything that is wrong with America. It was like like a shitty beach town with out the beach. We priceline’d an overpriced and shitty travel lodge to get out of the impending storm.
The storm ended up being the real deal. During the night looking the window, it looked like a hurricane was rolling through the area. We didn’t know the damage until after we picked up our breakfast at one of the nice Denny’s. (only saving grace of the town). All of the roads in and through the park were closed. No one had any clue when it would reopen. Alexis and I made a call and decided to drive out and around the park to get to Bryson city.
Our path took us through rolling Tennessee hillsides, until we eventually met up with the “tail of the Dragon”. The tail of the Dragon is a famous car road that winds through Apple Watch o that winds through TN/NC border. People sit alongside the road and take pictures of cars driving by. The civic made several of the shots.
We stopped by the Fontana dam and then continued on to Bryson City. We hiked the “Tunnel to nowhere” trail, which rolled along the side of Fontana lake. The trail was named for tunnel that dead end on the backside of the park. We stopped to take some pictures along side it. Afterwards, we loaded up and began our hike to our backpacking camp site. We followed the Nolan creek for about 2 miles. We set up camp had some snacks and I went and tried fly fishing. With no luck, we came back and crawled into the tent.
Next morning, we packed up and made our way back to Bryson city. We got some breakfast at hippy café and saw the train depart the city. After some coffee and a quick breakfast we made our way back to Charlotte.
