Smoky Mountains: Noteworthy Nature Excursions
Well, we have just about covered the highlight reel of our outdoor excursions in the park! We will have two more posts about the non-Great Smoky Mountains National Park experiences that we have had in the area (see Smoky Dump: Rolling On! and RV Living in Pigeon Forge), but as far as the park itself goes, this is it folks! We hope that you have enjoyed following along and reading about the first big destination on our journey!
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail
Right at the edge of town in Gatlinburg, this fun little one-way driving trail offers a beautiful glimpse into the smokies for people of all shapes and sizes! Been sitting around on your buttocks, living the sedentary life for too many years like your adventuring duo? No problem! Just get a light workout for your right leg as you manipulate the gas and brake pedals as you traverse the hilly, winding ridge path in your vehicle. Been working on that fitness? Good for you! Enjoy any one of the three waterfall hikes that start at the parking areas along the loop. This really is a great spot to get a nice intro to the park. There are old settlement structures, beautiful views, meandering creeks, and relatively frequent black bear sightings (based on our experience!). Here are some of our favorite shots from this great little drive.
There it is! A nice little taste of the Smokies, just outside of Gatlinburg!
In November of 2016, there was a wildfire that seriously burninated parts of the Smoky Mountains in true Trogdor fashion. What you see here are the charred remains of a once rich forest.
In this shot, you can see that Traci has clearly used ancient Druid healing magic to green up the forest floor. Soon, this will once again be a rich forest habitat. The fires took their toll on the mountains, but forests have evolved to bounce back from burnination with a fervor, feeding on the scorched remains of their brethren!
This shot gives a good feel for the lushness of the forest as you cruise along!
The road snakes across the Roaring Fork River, providing a multitude of opportunities to step out and appreciate its raw beauty. Here, we see ancient structures that were likely placed here by aliens… or possibly visitors within the last week. Nah. Almost certainly aliens.
Here we have Thousand Drips Falls, a treat that is located just beside the road on the motor trail. It feels like you’re in a rainforest, watching this wet weather waterfall cascade through the rocks!
…and we saw this guy out there. Not the crazy dude taking up close pictures. We did see him too, but I am referring to the cool black bear that we found wandering about in the woods, snacking on leaves. You can read more about this guy in our prior blog post, Smoky Bear Sightings,
Cucumber Gap and Little River Loop
We opted to take another “Moderate” hike in the Smokies that starts in the Elkmont campground (this is the same campground that has the synchronous firefly display mentioned in our prior blog post), passes by an old CCC camp by Jake’s Creek, cuts into the mountains and through a pass, Cucumber Gap, and then follows a beautiful river called “Little River”. This 5.6 mile hike consumed an afternoon, but it was a great one. We saw some of the most beautiful contrasts of the CCC ruins and nature, a number of little creatures along the way, and finished up with a gorgeous return trip on a The Little River Trail. Here are some of the top shots from this great hike!
Lucky break! These daylilies were blooming when we were passing by the old camp, providing bursts of color around the old structures. Sure, Hemerocallis fulva may be an invasive species, but it plays well here, so I’ll allow it.
Where once CCC cabins had been erected, this seems to be what typically remains; a bit of foundation and the cool old chimneys that kept those hard-working men warm at night.
Look at this towering tree! What kind of tree is it? I dunno. I’m kind of a dummy when it comes to trees. Perhaps I shall feed my brain with tree knowledge one day. For now, however, I shall just appreciate its beauty.
Snail bomb! Sometimes I feel for the mighty little snail. On one hand, you have these super-sweet eyes that you can extend out of your head to get an amazing perspective on your environment. On the other hand… you have no hands! That would be like being able to see a Snickers bar on the top shelf of your pantry, but having to spend the whole afternoon smashing your body up against the wall and dragging your slimy self up to get to it. To make matters worse, you would realize that you have no appendages to remove the Snickers bar wrapper! You would just slime up the exterior and be left weeping, because now you would have to deal with the realization that you will now miss your bedtime traversing back down the pantry wall with no delicious treat! I would hope that a sentient snail society would come up with a better solution for candy packaging, but what would that even be? Wrappers that dissolve with snail slime? How would you even hope to take it off of the shelf without dissolving its packaging if this were the case? Perhaps sentient snails would learn to craft tools that they could manipulate with their mouths and eyestalks to accomplish daily tasks. All this to say, just make sure to appreciate the appendages that you have, even if you are missing a couple. They are quite enviable upgrades in the animal kingdom!
Traci and I align in our enjoyment of snails. As an added bonus, this particular species serves as a detritivore, breaking down the dead and decaying matter in the forest . You keep doing you and munch down that dead tree buddy!
Harvestman Spider (aka Daddy Longlegs).
I promise that I won’t surprise you too often with surprise spider photography. We are planning to dedicate a section specifically to spiders, and other creepy, crawly critters, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. This was just too cool of a shot to pass up on sharing.
The rhododendron really do add another huge dimension to the experience in the forest of the Smokies. They give it a tropical ambiance.
Woah! This blue heron landed right in front of Scotty as he was out on the Little River taking a shot! Yet another amazing creature encounter!
Here’s looking at you, curious heron!
The heron checked us out for a bit, and then floated away. Beautiful.
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