Tennessee Road Trip Part 2: Smoky Mountains

Continuing the journal entries from last time.  I'm pretty sure the weather improves a bit, and as a result, so does my mood.  Plus I was witness to some pretty amazing things.

Sat. 6/8/13
Fog socked us in this morning, so unfortunately no sunrise this morning.  Instead, we slept in a bit and had some bagels and other easy breakfasty stuff when we did finally wake up.  Cataloochee campground, our temporary home for the first two nights in the Smokies, is a bit further away from the rest of the park.  Good news is that our view from the far East side of the park encompasses layer after layer of mountains stretching westward.  The unfortunate part is that it takes about two hours at least to drive to the rest of the park for hiking or sightseeing.  But we toughed it out.
We drove along Blue Ridge Parkway, which is a lot of switchbacks and views.  HOWEVER the fog really ruined our chances of seeing anything, so it was slightly unimpressive.  Also, the hike we were going to try was on a closed road, so we had to continue to another visitor center in an attempt to salvage the day for hiking.  We did - we drove up to where the Appalachian Trail intersects the road that cuts through the park.From there, we hiked north along the AT for four miles to Charlie's Bunion.  It was really cool hiking along the AT; we actually had quite a few amazing views of mountains layered on to infinity.

The clouds cleared up too!

We are LOVELY

 The other cool thing was that on one side of the trail we were on North Carolina and the other was Tennessee.  Not sure if you could tell, but I got a kick out of it.

Hahahaha Wheeeeeeeee this is the best

Charlie's Bunion was pretty amazing.  Some good views as the fog rolled in around us.

But seriously, who named it?  Charlie's Bunion?  Come on, Charlie.

WE DO NOT FEAR HEIGHTS

Moar poses

It was only an eight mile hike, so we drove over to Clingman's Dome, which is the highest mountain in the park (and third highest on the AT).  A portly southern gentleman spoke to us in what you could describe as an "extreme accent," warning us of the treacherous physical nature of the trail from the parking lot to the top of Clingman's Dome lookout.  It turned out to be a paved half mile.  And while the view was not "one thousand miles," it was still really nice.  We hung out for a bit, just people watching (making note of a particular group of unicorn/dragon enthusiasts).  We ended up playing the game "mentally hilarious or southern?" in which there are no conclusions or winners.

Sometimes it bothers me that my phone takes really nice pictures

Big windy path up to the top of the lookout

Is it just me, or do those farther mountains look a bit... "smoky?" har har har

I'm betting sunset from up here is pretty swell

"Headed down south to the land of the pines, thumbing my way to North Caroline"

Now we are watching our foil dinners graaaaadually cook.  The ground beef has been hanging out in a lukewarm cooler for... the duration of the trip, so... that should be fine.  The lack of ice suggests that the meat might be slightly suspect, but the real concern here is the level of complaining that accompanies it.  The fire took a little while to build up so we're going to check out a nearby meadow for some rumored Elk before we start the cooking process.
We just got back from our little Elk adventure: we saw five large females in the meadow, which was really cool to see.  However, the number of mating insects... on my windshield... was surreal.  So many.  It was insane.  But still, the Elk were worth it.  Especially to see the sky turn sunset colors.  We are now a-cookin' up our foil dinners in the coals.  Driving around all day has worked up an aggressive appetite.  And dinner is turning out to be pretty damn good.

PRETTY

These are some serious collars on the Elk

Later on, Scott and I went back down to the meadow for some star gazing and firefly watching.  Words can't even begin to describe how truly epic of an experience it was.  The stars were out of control clear.  And the fireflies were just insane.  Thousands of them surrounding us in the meadow and in the forest.  And the most impressive part was the synchronous nature of their blinking.  Everything would be completely black for a few moments, and then all at once hundreds of fireflies would start blinking like an enormous, endless Christmas tree all around us.  And then this would repeat.  I've never seen so many of them before.  I can't even.


Sun. 6/9/13
The day had a bit of a slow start, but we eventually packed up camp and started on our way to the other side of the park.  Scott and I were actually able to pack up camp and pack up the car in a relatively decent speed - we're getting efficient at this.  On our way out we saw two male Elk on the side of the road looking majestic as fuck.

Helloooooo sir

REALLY big

The drive to the other side of the park (the north/Tennessee side) was long, but actually a pretty fun drive.  We made it to a few pretty good overlooks.  One of the things I've noticed about the Smokies at this point is that the farthest layers of mountains have a blue haze about them.  It definitely gives them that quintessential "smoky" look.

Almost offensively beautiful

Out first stop for the day was the Ramsey Falls hike: an eight mile round-trip hike to one of the more impressive waterfalls in the park.  It was also quite humid and steep, more so than we were expecting, so it was an extremely arduous hike as well.  But so absolutely worth it.  Plus, I got to hike fog's-out-guns-out all the way to the falls.  We then went for a "swim," or more realistically a walk under the falls, and it was amazing.  By the end of the hike all of our clothes were soaking wet, either from the falls or the sweat, which really only added to the horrific smell that my car has been acquiring.

SO DELICIOUSLY COLD

I'll take all the "showering" I can get at this point

We then continued on to our campsite for the next two nights: Elkmont campground.  This place is extremely popular this time of year because it is the best place to witness the mating synchronous fireflies.  Luckily I researched the crap out of this so that we were able to get two consecutive nights here.  AND we were able to set up our tent before it started raining.  Well... barely.  But it is more than we can say for either of the other times we've set this friggn thing up.  We scrambled inside and ate some "peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches," which can only be called as such because the crumpled smushed bread is still technically "bread."
With that ordeal behind us, we drove up for a short walk to another waterfall called Laurel Falls.  We were PROMISED a bear, but I guess that's some sick joke the rangers play on us, because there wasn't a damn one.  We did, however, get to see a nice waterfall that we climbed up on for pictures.  This started a wave of copycats.

The person taking our picture decided that getting the waterfall in the picture wasn't really important

I've stood on higher

Fully drenched again, we piled back into the car to obtain some beer in the sickeningly touristy town of Gatlinburg.  That place is so bad it made my skin crawl.  So tacky and touristy, even worse than a boardwalk.  But our beer obtaining mission was a success, just as the downpour started.  We had a difficult time starting a fire with soaking wet tinder, but our neighbors lent us a hand and we shared some beers and had a grand old time.
Once dark set in it was firefly time.  We were lucky that the pouring rain did nothing to dissuade them from the mating procedure.  And our campground was prime location.  Some people were getting bussed in from Gatlinburg - it was that big.  Only red lights were allowed so as to avoid messing with the firefly mating.  The combination of the lack of light and the torrential rain made it difficult to stick together, but we somehow all found each other after getting separated.  After our eyes adjusted a little it started getting really intense.  More fireflies than last night even.  It was overwhelming.  I don't know how long we stayed there, but we were fortunate enough to see a few iterations of the synchronous blinking.  One time it would start from the right and move left, passing along in front of us with literally thousands of blinks, all commencing at once.  Later in the night the blinking would start very far away from us, and then gradually sweep toward us along the forest in a wave of blinks.  It was so hard to believe that it is a completely natural event carried out by beings of this planet.  Just so incredible.  It's a feeling that's really hard to describe.  And unfortunately I wasn't able to get any pictures of it (not that it would do anything to justify it).


Mon. 6/10/13
Scott and I awoke early this morning for our big hike - a ten mile round-trip trek to Mount LeConte.  We woke up around 5:30 with the intention of catching sunrise, but the clouds were determined to thwart our plans.  We did, however, make it to the trailhead by 6:30 - well before anyone else, so we had the entire trail to ourselves for the morning.
The start of the hike was humid and rainforesty, but that early in the morning it felt great.  The trail followed a stream for about a mile and a half before breaking off into a rock-tunnel-staircase type thing.

Scott makes his way through the "tunnel" ok I have no idea what you call this

We then ascended a bit to the bluffs, which was a really unique rocky semi-cave structure.  We walked through a curtain of falling water to enter what looked like a wide half-cavern.  And the views of the Smokies were unbelievable.  They are aptly named because the mists and fog traversing the mountains absolutely looks like smoke.

So smoky!

The waterfall created a doorway into the cave area

Scott has made it under the ledge

I've not seen anything like this before

A few more miles of hiking through rocky, wet terrain (with some great views of the surrounding mountains) and we hit the point in which we entered a cloud, so it got a bit colder, wetter, and foggier.  But it wasn't too steep and summitting was easier than I expected.  We had a few snacks on the summit, listening to the wind blow through the trees, which sounded exactly like waves crashing at the beach.
And then the downpour.  I knew it was coming.  After just a mile we were completely soaked, but it was ok because I was still riding high from what a good hike up it was.  It didn't clear up until we made it back to the bluffs, but we didn't mind too much.  The other hikers that we passed were not of similar disposition.  By the time we made it back to the creek the cascades were torrenting and my dogs were barking.  And everything I owned was completely soaked.  But we completed the hike and made it back to camp in time to find Michelle and Sarah awake and antsy for things in the car.
Upon our return, we feasted upon a plethora of bagels, english muffins, and hummusy snacks.  We then slothed pretty hard most of the day.  I believe I briefly fell asleep on the picnic table, and perhaps in a sunny patch of grass by our tent.  After a few hours or so I decided to be a little active since it was suddenly nice out, so I went running along the river.  Holy crap, so hot.  I had to dunk in the stream afterward.
A few people wanted some odds and ends, so we made another trip out to Gatlinburg (UGH) to pick up some supplies.  Now we are about to set off into the world of pie iron pizzas before we head out for fireflies once again.
Time passes.  We ate.  Deal with it.
The fireflies, as expected, were once again epic.  I still can't even fathom how a phenomenon like that even occurs.  It is straight-up magical.  Thousands, maybe millions of these guys lining the forests and meadows and streams, all blinking in sync.

Thank you Smoky Mountains.  You are awesome.