Smokies

 3/19- Great Smokey Mountains National Park 

   Like a lot of the national parks we have been to you have to drive quite a bit inside the park. The two main attractions here were 20 and 40 miles away. With the traffic and twisty roads that meant driving 2 hours and then driving back 2 hours. We decided to pick a closer option. 

   That option was a hike on the Appalachian Trail. The road to the highest part of the park won’t open for another week yet so just past that is where the AT crosses. It is at 5000 feet and is the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. We walked a couple of miles up the trail and turned around. There were some very nice views off to either side of the trail. We did meet a few through hikers headed for Maine which was only 1900 miles away. I would have gone but then I remembered I had to return to the van. 

    The parking lot on our return was a zoo. It was filled with cars and people so we hightailed it back to the campsite. 

    It is interesting that this park does not really have a big central draw like the Grand Canyon or Arches. It is nice scenery but the main reason this park was founded was to keep lumber companies from cutting down all the trees. They were well on their way to doing that when someone realized that they would. Thus the park actually managed to preserve a good sized section of virgin forest. Some of these trees are massive reaching well over 100 feet tall and 8 feet across at the bottom. 

   Also it was interesting to me that we were over 6000 feet today and there was no tree line. There were big birches and oaks at that altitude. They say that trees up there can be 500 years old and yet be only 20 feet tall. 

   At the campsite we had 2 families who knew each other from West Virginia on either side of us. Their kids quickly used our site as a playground. We had fun with them ( and their parents) sitting around the campfire. 

    The forecast calls for the possibility of snow tonight. I hope we are not getting north too early!!

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