We left Helen, Ga, about 7:30am and it took about two hours to get to Cherokee in North Carolina which was our entrance to the Park.
The traffic was quite slow through Cherokee, which gave me a chance to glimpse the town. I would have liked to look around as it seemed quite interesting with its American Indian Heritage, but my husband was on a mission to see the mountains and didn't want to stop. We did however, have coffee in a cafe just before the park entrance.
Entrance to the park is free, which is unusual, but you are supposed to call in the Interpretive Centre, get a map and make a donation. My husband thought I had got lost at this point because I noticed a Mountain Farm Museum that I went round to photograph whilst he waited in the car - he thought I had only called in for the map. The farm contains a two room house and farm buildings and shows how the early settlers lived.
Our first call was up the hill to Clingmans Dome where there is a car park and a half-mile walk up a path that circles round to the tope of the Observation tower. It was a hot day, the path was very busy and a lot of children were complaining they were too hot to walk - it’s quite a walk for little ones.
On reaching the summit the view was tremendous - there is 360-degree views of the Smokies which are very hazy, hence the name "Smokey Mountains". There are boards round the rim of the observation tower explaining what can be seen and a Ranger was there to answer questions. He was telling people about a lot of the trees dying from a disease that came from Europe and they are finding it hard to treat as it eats the tree from the inside and can only be treated from the inside.
Back at the car park, we ate lunch that we had brought with us sitting on some steps and admiring the view. On our departure we saw a placard showing the Tennessee North Carolina State Line.
We drove back down the hill to find our way to Cades Cove and Roaring Fork Motor Trail.
My husband quite liked the look of Gatlinburg which we had to go through to reach Roaring Forks Trail and was very busy, so hopefully we may go back one day and spend more time in the area.