May 18

After a good night’s sleep, we had breakfast and were on our way into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The temperatures were cool and the cloud cover a bit low, but no rain within 100 miles of us on the radar.

Traveling along US441 we headed towards Newfound Gap following a stream the entire way.
Within 5 minutes, Michele wanted me to pull over so she could put on her fleece jacket. She already had her heated liner in but needed more layers. With temps in the low 60s it was only going to get cooler as we ascended up the mountain.

Within 12 miles we were entering Tennessee at the Newfound Gap lookout. At 5000 feet the temp was 53F.

We continued along US441 stopping at an overlook that provided scenes like this:

These scenes were typical throughout the park. We made our way to the Sugarland Visitors Center. The center had a nice historical timeline of how the park came to be along with a museum with exhibits of all the various animal and plant species that can be found in the park. Michele liked the “Music of the Mountain” exhibit. She especially liked the part about the “Devils instrument” (the square violin).

By this time it was approaching lunch, so we made our way into Gatlinburg to find food. Nothing in Gatlinburg really appealed to us, and was exceptionally touristy, so we continued on to Pigeon Forge and found a Cracker Barrel.

After lunch we went back into the park and then continued on to Cades Cove. At Cades Cove we drove the scenic loop. What an unexpected treat this turned out to be. The views were spectacular and we saw a few black bears and their cubs.

We stopped by the visitor center at Cades Cove and walked around the “mountain community” the park service had constructed around a mill original to the site.

There were a few signs warning us of snakes and sure enough, Rob spotted a snake at the entrance to one of the buildings. (Michele's note: Rob tends to be a trickster and I thought he was just pulling my leg when he said he saw one under the step. Well, it was very real!) (Rob's note to Michele's note: Michele claims to not be afraid of snakes so I was testing her....if someone squeals and jumps back at the sight of a snake, are they not afraid?). ;-)

We also spotted two birds that were making their nest inside one of the structures.

We back-tracked our way to Sugarland and then to Cherokee via Newfound Gap where we were treated with more spectacular riding.

We arrived back at the hotel at around 6:30pm. We had dinner and retired to the room for the evening.

We only traveled about 150 miles today but the scenery was among the most spectacular we’ve seen on our travels. The Great Smokey Mountain National Park really is quite the treasure.

For today’s “picture of the day” we give you the following. Hint: note the last listing on the sign. We’ll let you add the caption for this one. :-)

Tomorrow we’ll head back to Smokemont in the park for a little horse back riding and then on to Asheville to spend the night with friends.