Great Smoky Mountains, Strawberry Loves The Great Outdoors, Travel

Great Smoky Reflections

The sheer beauty of this place overwhelms me, and I leave this place transformed. My senses remain dazzled by all I’ve seen and heard, touching emotions that cannot be processed in anything approaching real-time.

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Great Smoky Mountains, Strawberry Loves The Great Outdoors, Travel

GSMNP – Little River Trail

On my last day in Gatlinburg, the morning greeted me with a crystalline blue sky and cooler temperatures. I selected the Little River hike because it was in Elkmont, I part of the part I had not visited yet.

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Great Smoky Mountains, Strawberry Loves The Great Outdoors, Travel

GSMNP – Andrews Bald

After missing out on the opportunity to get a view from the top of the park the day before, I headed back up to Clingman’s Dome after my morning hike at Porter’s Creek. This time, the sky was clear blue and the air was quite cool with a very strong wind adding to the chill. I decided to take the trail to Andrews Bald instead of hiking asphalt up to the observation area. In the Appalachians, a bald is a high flattish area without many trees, sort of an open field if you will. Since I didn’t have any pictures of spectacular vistas, this seemed like the place for me.

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Great Smoky Mountains, Strawberry Loves The Great Outdoors, Travel

GSMNP – Hen Wallow Falls

Feeling ambitious on my first day, I swung into the Cosby section of the park and hit the Gabes Mountain Trail to find my way to the awesomely-named Hen Wallow Falls. This had a completely different feel than the trail up to Mouse Creek Falls – no sound of rushing rapids and the trail was littered with roots and rocks.

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Great Smoky Mountains, Strawberry Loves The Great Outdoors, Travel

GSMNP – Porter’s Creek

On a cooler, overcast morning, I headed into the Greenbrier section of the park and made my way to Porter’s Creek Trailhead. The first two hikes I’d picked when making my plans were both Greenbrier hikes – Porter’s and Ramsey Cascades – but because of weather and other things, I did not visit until my fourth day in the park. Based on my (apparent lack of, lol) fitness level, I’d already decided to leave Ramsey for another trip, but I felt even more vindicated when I saw a traffic sign saying that the trail was closed.

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Great Smoky Mountains, Strawberry Loves The Great Outdoors, Travel

GSMNP – Grotto Falls

It was fairly late in the day, and I was a bit gun-shy after the cloud experience I had just left at Clingman’s Dome, but I wasn’t quite ready to quit yet, so I drove to the Roaring Fork Motor Trail in Gatlinburg with the idea that I could drive the loop before dinner.

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Great Smoky Mountains, Strawberry Loves The Great Outdoors, Travel

GSMNP – Laurel Falls

Laurel Falls

I began my day with a hike up to Laurel Falls, an easy short hike. It was cool and threatening rain, with heavy winds howling in the trees overhead. Laurel Falls trail is paved the whole way to the falls, which is kind of odd.

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Great Smoky Mountains, Strawberry Loves The Great Outdoors, Travel

GSMNP – Deep Creek Waterfalls

After making the long drive to Cherokee, NC and then on to Bryson City, I found my way back into the national park at the Deep Creek trailhead. Despite driving so far, I did not plan to hike much, just to do a short loop to two waterfalls. I pulled on my gear and headed up the short hill to Juney Whank waterfall, just 0.3 miles from the parking area.

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Great Smoky Mountains, Strawberry Loves The Great Outdoors, Travel

GSMNP – To Deep Creek & Back

I have mentioned this in multiple posts already, but I will mention it again: this place is spectacular. I decided that I wanted to check out Cherokee/Deep Creek, which meant I got to drive from the Tennessee portion of the park straight through to the North Carolina portion of the park. I’ve long loved Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, but it clearly takes a second place to Highway 441/Newfound Gap Road. The high views on Trail Ridge are slightly better, but the roadside scenery at GSMNP beats it. And there are treasures hidden everywhere, some with turnout areas, some without. My head was whipping around all over the place, so I’m glad the speed limits are relatively low.

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Great Smoky Mountains, Strawberry Loves The Great Outdoors, Travel

GSMNP – Cades Cove Scenic Loop

So there’s the wildlife

The weather was starting to clear as I entered the loop, but there were still some pretty scary clouds lurking about off to the south. I stopped at many of the turnouts to take pictures as the wind howled. The first traffic stoppage was due to a small deer in the woods. There were maybe six cars stopped to take a picture of one deer. I saw five times more deer than that along every ten miles of interstate back in Michigan. Sleep well, little Michigan deer!

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