Smokey Mountain Camping with Hannah Belle

Sunday, July 29, 2012

            At the beginning of this summer our Hannah Belle began telling us that she wanted us to take her to the Smokey Mountains.  (I think perhaps a schoolmate had gone camping there and mentioned it to her.)  Well, this has been a pretty hectic summer and we’ve hardly been on any camping trips.  With Hannah on the verge of beginning K-garden we knew we had better snap-to and plan a trip. 

            So, this morning we loaded up the Montana, hooked onto the new Heavy Duty Dodge 3500 Truck (did I mention that we totaled the Ford 350 and had to find and new tow vehicle – but that’s another story) and entered the coordinance for the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.  Our plan we to head north on U.S. Hwy 441 to the GSMNP, travel through the winding park road, over the mountain to the tourist town of Gatlinbury TN and then east on Hay 321 to Smokey Bear Park.  This 200 mile mountainous trip was a breeze for the new Dodge and we arrived unimpeded at our campground at 3 p.m.   With all of the tourist information securely in hand, we decided to relax and swim the rest of the day and made plans to spend the next day at one of the Park’s main attractions - Cades Cove.

Monday, July 30

            This morning, with high hopes of seeing a Black Bear in the Park, we packed drinks and snacks and headed over to Cades Cove.  [Now, if you’ve never been to the GSMNP, you can’t quite appreciate the heavy traffic there unless you’ve been to Atlanta at 8 a.m.:)  Really though, the Great Smokey Mountains National Park is the most visited park in the country with 7 million visitors each year.  So, you’ve got to be patient and be prepared to face some slow moving traffic.  Even with all of us visitors though, wildlife is abundant as well as places of solitude.]

            This really was a beautiful day for a Codes Cove visit.  The temperature was 79 degrees and sunny, so we were decked out in shorts, sneakers, and sunglasses to take in the local 150-year-old farmhouses of former inhabitants and relive with our imaginations what Appalachian life was like.  These mountain folk lived in beautiful surroundings but lets face it – life for these pioneers was tough!

            As we followed the winding one lane loop road through the cove we came upon a small traffic jam.  With tourists jumping from their cars with cameras in hand; it could mean only one this – BEARS!  So, as we franticly twisted around in the truck straining our senses – a black furry mound came into focus in an adjacent field.  Could it be? Yes – it was actually a live bear minding it’s own business, making it’s was through the knee high grass field.  Grammy and I have been through this route countless times and had never seen a bear – but here it was - for us and others to enjoy.  Very cool.              A couple of miles down the road we came upon a white tail deer feeding just off of the road.  Hannah Belle took all of this in stride; calmly announcing to us the next thing she wanted to see was a skunk!  OK.  We ordered up a skunk sighting, but sadly for Hannah, no luckJ

            After leaving the wildlife behind in the park we decided we really take a chance and go back to Gatlinburg and tackle the other wildlife – street venders and store shop owners after our wallets!  Hannah took quick note of the cute chairs and boxes full of people traveling up the side of a mountain. This is also known as “Ober Gatlinburg – Sky Tram and Ski Lift”.   Of course once you’re half way up the mountain there’s got to be some other rides and trinkets buy, right!  The merry-go-round was favored and Hannah took full advantage of the all you can ride policyJ

Well, that pretty much wrapped up the full day – so we headed back to the campground to take a dip in the swimming pool and watch then watch the Olympic events for the rest of the evening.

Tuesday, July 31

            Since horses, and anything to do with horses, are Hannah’s “most favorite thing to do in the world”, right now, Gigi found horses galore up the road a bit in Pigeon Forge.  It’s called Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede.  This dinner show was the perfect place to spend this rainy day.  Hannah was thrilled to watch the horses, cowgirls, and cowboys do their tricks and goofy stunts.  She even a close up look at the horses in their stalls before and after the show.  All and all, I’d say it was a perfect day for Hannah as well as Gigi and OpaJ

            9 p.m. – Well today may have been the perfect day, but not much for tonight.  The entire campground lost power due to an extreme storm.  It’s raining right now and there’s a lot of lightning and thunder but thankfully no high winds.  We are running one lone light in the camper that is battery powered but I’m a little concerned about low battery power for operating the camper’s landing gear tomorrow morning.  On top of that, we just ran out of LP gas – so the refrigerator is now out as well.  As they say – when it rains….

           

Wednesday, August 1

            Today was pack up the Montana and get-away from all those tourists day.  As it turned out the power was lost for only 1 ½ hour last night and the storm wasn’t as bad as it could have been.  It was comfortable for sleeping all the night through and we woke to a beautiful morning.    And the camper’s battery was just fine….all that worry for nothing!  Thank you very much!

            The trip home was uneventful which is always a blessing.  Hope you enjoyed our little get-a-way as much as we did.        Happy trails!

Pappy

Hannah finally made it to the Smokies!

Hannah takes a pretty good pic - disregard the ugly one on the right

Gig & Hannah finds a cool stream to enjoy!

Even the bears need hugs in the Smokies:)