SW USA 2024: The Canadian Coddiwomplers*

*Coddiwomple: “to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination."

Sights of the Smoky Mountains Tour

Our first outing in the Smoky Mountains was with a 7^th generation hillbilly. That’s what he called himself. We met him in Sevierville (pronounced Severeville) at the Apple Barn. This is a huge complex with two restaurants, a cider mill, a winery, bakery (fried apple pies), ice cream shop, candy maker and a Christmas Store – I’m sure I missed something. There is also a huge parking lot which is probably why they chose the place to meet.

On our way to the national park, we passed through Pigeon Forge. Dwayne told us the town got its name from the large historic forge where pigeons used to roost. Clever. As I said in our last blog, this place can be described as Niagara Falls on steroids. There are amusements everywhere. There's Ripley's Wax Museum, a Titanic Museum, Dollywood, Dolly's Pirate Adventure, Dolly's Stampede, several dinner theatres, an upside down building, indoor snow tubing, go carts and, of course, roller coasters.

A few pics along the Pigeon Forge strip snapped from the tour van.

This one was sideways and we don't know what it is.

The Titanic Museum ... a fake iceberg is next door.

The Wax Museum

After a quick look at the old forge, we drove to the national park. All the time we were driving around Dwayne talked about the history of the area and what it was like growing up in the mountains. He is descended from one of the first families to settle in the Smokies – the Ogle family. His branch was not part of the wealthy Ogles and his stories were about eking out a living before the area became a tourist mecca.

The first stop on our tour was at Chimney Tops for the beautiful view of these mountains that rise above the tree line at 4,700 feet. This mountain is a double capstone knob on the slope of Sugarland Mountain. You can see how the area is recovering from a terrible fire that burned over 11,000 acres in the park in 2016. Dwayne told us it was started by two young men throwing matches. Fires like that are not common as the area is usually very wet from lots of rain. However, there was significant deadfall of hemlocks killed by an Asian insect and this particular year was drier than usual.

The day was overcast but the scenery was still amazing.

We travelled the windy, narrow road that follows the Little Pigeon River further up passing through a tunnel and driving around “The Loop.” The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built many of the structures in the park and completed this part of the road in 1936. The valley here is so narrow that even a hairpin curve would not fit so the CCC ingeniously built the loop. Dwayne warned us not to look at the trees as we drove around because it was easy to get dizzy.

We stopped at Newfound Gap for the view. Even though the day was a bit grey and drizzly the view was still amazing. Newfound Gap sits on the state border between Tennessee and North Carolina and the Appalachian Trail that runs through the national park crosses the border here. Of course, we went walking on the Appalachian Trail.

The view from Newfound Gap.

Here we are after our hike on the Appalachian Trail.

The CCC built much of the trails and the Appalachian Trail in the park.

There is a memorial here commemorating the 1940 official dedication of the park by President Roosevelt. The $5 million gift to buy land was donated by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial. The GSMNP (Great Smokey Mountain National Park) was designated a World Heritage Site in 1983.

Elkmont Historic District

The Elkmont area was where many people built their summer homes. The park has preserved several of these buildings and the clubhouse. There were three areas of housing in Elkmont but only the Daisy Town site still has homes standing. It was originally built to house logging employees but after the logging ceased in the 1920s it became a vacation area. Many of the summer residents in Elkmont were instrumental in forming the park.

Quite a variety of cottage styles, sizes and ages.

We learned about a phenomenon that happens in Elkmont in the early summer, synchronous fireflies! There are 19 species of fireflies in the park. Apparently, they glow in unison. The Park has to limit the number of vehicles allowed in the historic district so each spring they hold a lottery for passes. We didn’t see them in the park but we did see fireflies flashing in unison at our campground. (One park volunteer described the lighting as more "wave-like" similar to a sports crowd "wave").

This was the Elkmont Club House. It's still used today and can be rented for events.

We didn't catch the firefly display in Elkmont, but we did see this cutie outside the club house.

It was time for lunch so we headed to Townsend to a small family run restaurant. Dwayne told us about William Townsend, he owned The Little River Lumber Company and 80,000 acres in the Smokies. He also owned a railroad to transport the lumber. By the 1930s, he’d sold most of this land to the State of Tennessee for the park and he believed that the town named after him would be the main entrance to the park and thrive. However, according to our guide, the placement of the exits from the Interstate Highway diverted most traffic to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg leaving Townsend as the “Peaceful Side of the Smokies.” It is picturesque, natural and quiet there unlike the other entrances.

After lunch we continued travelling in the gorgeous park, stopped at a coffee roasters (of course) returned to Pigeon Forge. It was a great day of exploring.