Summer Road Trip 2018: Day Five

Gatlinburg, Tennessee:  Good morning from our final full day of the 2018 Summer Road Trip to the Great Smoky Mountains.  Unlike yesterday's busy day, today is much more laid back with nothing scheduled.  So I kicked around the idea of going to Dollywood but the mountains are calling my name and after our luck of finding bear the other day, I figured I try to find more bear and maybe the other popular park resident, the elk.  So instead of hitting the commercial attractions, we elected to head back into the natural ones instead.

But before we hit the trails, it was time to refuel the energy tanks.  Today for breakfast, we headed about 20 minutes out of town to a little local restaurant called Trish's Mountain Diner.  It was well worth the drive.  This restaurant located in a rustic cabin had the most hospitable staff since we arrived in town and the food was amazing.  I really hate it that we found it on the last day of the trip because I certainly would have ate here again before leaving.  I had the chicken biscuit and loaded breakfast potatoes and it was delicious. 

After breakfast we headed back out to Cades Cove to try and find more bear.  Instead of going the usual way through the park, we opted to come into Cades Cove through the Townsend entrance.  It provided us with a chance to drive through more of the region and see towns we had not yet seen. 

Once inside Cades Cove, it was already pretty busy.  We got pretty excited because shortly into the loop we came across our first bear jam.  But by the time we got to where it was seen, it had already retreated back into the woods.  But despite not seeing the bear, the second half of the loop that was closed the other day was open today so we spent time stopping at the historical structures along the loop.  Being a history nerd, I really enjoy exploring the historical aspect of the park and learning about the history of the region and its early settlers.  Although we did not see bear, we did see deer and turkey along the loop.

Since it was a quiet trip on the Cades Cove loop, we headed back into town after the first lap.  We headed back to the city via the Townsend entrance again.  When we got to Pigeon Forge, we decided we would try the Old Mill again. But despite getting there before the dinner rush, it was still packed with a long wait.  I guess the Old Mill was not going to happen on this trip.  But the trip into Pigeon Forge was not a complete waste, I made a stop into the fire station for a tour and to meet the crew.

Working in public safety for over 18 years, I never really visited the stations on vacation before.  I have driven by and taken photos of apparatus if it was out, but never really stopped in and visited.  But that all changed a few months ago when someone close to me had introduced me to collecting fire department shirts.  So its become a new tradition that started with my New Orleans trip and continued here in Tennessee.  It is pretty cool to see that even 1,000 miles from home, how close the brotherhood of the fire service is, even as a tourist they treat you like family.  I picked up a pair of t-shirts, a patch and took some apparatus pics before heading back on our way.

It was time for dinner and since Old Mill was out of the question, we decided to have dinner at Bennett's Bar-B-Que near our hotel.  This place was highly recommend by the hotel so we gave them a try.  Full disclosure, I am weird when it comes to BBQ.  I love it but I am not a huge fan of sauce.  So it is an instant turn-off for me if the food is covered in sauce.  Luckily the food here is not, it comes smoked and you put the sauce on yourself.  We started with an order of pulled pork potato skins for the table and I had the beef brisket sandwich for my dinner.  It was really good and I can see why the hotel raved about it. 

After supper, it was time to do some more exploring, this time we headed to the Sugarlands Visitor Center at the Gatlinburg entrance to the park. We took a little time to explore the museum in the visitor center and take a look around the gift shop. I got my national parks passport stamped inside the visitor center.  Purchased last year on our trip to Asheville, the passport allows you to get dated validation stamps at visitor centers throughout the national park system.  There are several stamps for the Great Smoky National Park including Sugarlands, Cades Cove, Oconaluftee and Clingman's Dome.  Then we took a hike on the nature trail behind the visitor center.  The trail leads long the waterway behind the visitors center past and is a very easy to hike trail  Along the nature trail, a spur trail headed back to a waterfall about a half-mile away.  While Cataract Falls isn't the most impressive waterfall in the Smoky mountains, its still a beauty and better yet it is a short, easy hike making it one of the most accessible ones in the park.  I bet after a heavy rain, this waterfall probably looks a lot more impressive.  But it was a great sight and well worth the time. 

We hiked back to the car and then headed on a mission to find elk.  Elk once roamed the park but were hunted to extinction within the park.  The National Park Service reintroduced elk into the park in the early 200's and they are thriving within the park. The elk can be found in the early morning and evening hours in the fields of the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and in the Cataloochee section of the park.  So I headed over to the Cherokee section of the park and once we hit the grassland, we found the first of three elk in the field.  On the way back through, we turned on a side street and found a second adult female elk with a baby elk. 

So we did it, we saw three of the natural wonders of the smokies in the same trip; bear, elk and waterfalls.  With the sun beginning to lower, I decided it was time to head back over the mountain and towards the hotel.  On the way back to the hotel, we stopped on the top of the mountain to watch the sunset over the Great Smoky Mountains signaling the end of our last full day of the summer road trip.