wildflowers Archives

I touched on this yesterday in my post about Cade’s Cove. When all the moonshine and whiskey, train rides and Dollywood are said and done, the real reason I want to go to Gatlinburg is the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

The Park Services page turned out to be an awesome resource for planning my visit. Since I’ve been struggling with arthritis and recovering from my spill in San Diego, I don’t know how much stamina I’ll have for hikes. I hope to be able to do some but it’s too soon to tell. My right hip still acts up quite a lot. Just in case hiking is not an option the website lists the auto tours.

An auto tour of the park offers a chance to see panoramic vistas, cascading mountain rivers, weathered historic buildings, and majestic forests stretching to the horizon.

We know there’s one though Cades Cove but there’s a whole list of others:

Cataloochee Valley
Newfound Gap Road
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail
Upper Tremont Road

In addition, the book Smokies Road Guide covers main thoroughfares and scenic backroads in the park. This book and the self-guiding auto tour booklets listed above are available at park visitor centers and online. Self-guiding tour booklets are also available from dispensers at the start of the roads they cover.

I have my National Parks Pass and my “Passport books” to get stamps but there’s no entrance fee to the park anyway! Yup one of the most visited parks in the US is free.

I’m heading to the park in the spring. Anytime is beautiful in this park but the Great Smokey National Park is knick named the Wildflower National Park. Spring and summer are renown for spectacular displays of wildflowers along roads and trails.

And along with the wildflowers are wildlife. The Site offers tips for wildlife viewing. Some are standard like view early or late in the day but I especially liked this advice: Viewing wildlife in the Smokies can be challenging because most of the park is covered by dense forest. Open areas like Cataloochee and Cades Cove offer some of the best opportunities to see white-tailed deer, black bear, raccoon, turkeys, woodchucks, and other animals. The narrow, winding road of Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail encourages motorists to travel at a leisurely pace and sometimes yields sightings of bear and other wildlife.

I’m so ready to go check this out! I’m polishing and cleaning the camera, lenses and filter. I hope I can get some photos that come close to the beautiful ones I get to see when I search online.

We were up bright and early the next morning. The sun seems to rise about 5am and light was filtering in through the small hall window. I believe that’s the “natural” way to wake up…to sunlight but it was still early!

Showered and refreshed we took the car when we went to breakfast. Back to the Great Maine Breakfast but we’d learned our lessons yesterday with the “Lumberjack”. We toned down our orders today. I had the cinnamon – raisin french toast. Soooo Good. I have to say, all the food has been fantastic and filling. I can’t fault the quality or the quantity. Once again I was only able to eat about 1/2 the order but I’d put a cooler in the car so I took the left over as a “doggy bag”.

We picked up some bottled water and headed out to spend the day exploring Acadia National Park. Acadia has a Loop Road that you can drive through the park. Following it will take you to many of the high points if you’re not a hiker.

We pulled off wherever there was a scenic overlook. The views of Frenchman’s Bay were beautiful. The heat and humidity were back so there was a haze that interfered with pictures even with filters to offset the effect. Still it was breathtaking.

The sand beach was so packed we weren’t able to get a parking spot.

Since there were so many other sights we skipped it for now and headed on to the next big location on our list, Jordan Pond.

We had heard that Jordan Pond was a must see/do especially their pop-over lunch. Walking to the lodge we spotted a “Mountain Garden”.

The Garden was made up of trails, water features and wild flowers native to the area. It was all done so naturally among the trees that it seemed as if you had just come upon it by accident. Each type of habitat was clearly marked.

It was here that I saw the jack-in-the- pulpit.

I was thrilled to spot it because it’s been years and years since I’d seen one.

Another plant I hadn’t seen in a long time was the pitcher plant but there they were. Talk about being taken back in time!

There were benches along the paths and little bridges over the brooks. It was much cooler under the trees too so the garden was a really refreshing break from the heat. Eventually we wandered to the lodge and checked the menu for the Pop-over picnic lunch. I don’t remember the price exactly but it wasn’t cheap and it was vetoed immediately by my frugal friend. Vacation or not, JR was on a budget. Maybe next trip.

Leaving the lodge we crossed a pretty log bridge and explored the Native American museum.

It’s very small but they had a series of dioramas that were very well done. The volunteer was well versed in the history of the area and the museum. Her husband was also there running the gift shop.

After we left the museum we headed back to the car. At the time it didn’t occur to me that we never walked down to see the actual Jordan’s Pond!

Next stop was my favorite…Thunder Hole.

Judging from the number of people here it’s a favorite of a lot of people. We followed the signs from the parking area out onto rocky cliffs. Stairs had been carved into the rock and there were metal hand rails.

Following these trails over the rocks let you climb right down to the waterline where the surf came crashing.

At the base was a blow-hole. I’d seen these in Hawaii. The water rushes in and as it exits there’s a whoosh and then the sound of “thunder”…hense the name Thunder Hole.