Our Smokey Mountain Vacation - Day Five, Part Five: Roaring Forks Motor Road

This post is part of a travel series of our vacation in the Smokey Mountains.  To start at the beginning, go HERE!  The rest of the posts in chronological order are HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE!

I think this first picture if just perfect for the first picture of this post because it looks as if I'm waving goodbye to you.  In a sense, I am!  I am waving goodbye to the Smokey Mountains and to this series, for Roaring Forks Motor Road was the very last thing we did in the Smokey's and this  post will be the end of this series.

I don't think we intentionally saved "the best for last" for we really didn't know anything about this scenic road.  It just so happened that the road didn't even open till the very last day of our vacation, and it also happened to be the very last thing we did on Day Five because we hit it on our way back to our hotel for the night.  But I do believe, driving and exploring the Roaring Forks Motor Road was one of the best things we did in the Smokies.  It was so peaceful.  There were not that many people on this road once you got past the popular trail heads.  We were able to pull over as often as we wished, and just enjoy the tranquil beauty of the Smokies.

 Roaring Forks Motor Road is a one-way 5.5 mile winding, narrow road that takes you through the forests and alongside an exuberant mountain stream:  "Roaring Fork".  It is one of the largest and fastest mountain streams in the park.  In addition to viewing the beautiful forest and stream, you will see lots of historic buildings, similar to what you'd find in Cades Cove Loop Road.

There are multiple stops on the road where you can pick up a hiking trail or explore an early settler's settlement.  Here we stopped not just to check out the cabin seen in the distance, but also so I could take my sneakers off and soak my tired feet in the stream.

The Roaring Forks stream truly is the most spectacular thing to see on this road.  The sound of running water is everywhere, so be sure to drive with your car windows down.

There are quite a number of historic buildings, log cabins, and a grist mill on this road.

The best part of being in the Smokies this time of the year was seeing all the Trilliums in bloom.  They formed a beautiful white carpet in the forest.

History buffs will love exploring Roaring Forks Motor Road for it's filled with information of all the early settlers.

You can access both the Rainbow Falls and the Grotto Falls trailheads from the Roaring Forks Motor Road, but there is also one waterfall you can see right from your car window for it's right on the road.  It's called "Place of a Thousand Drips".  Isn't that a great name for a waterfall?

But the fun doesn't end there!  Right when you exit the Roaring Forks Motor Road there is a little artistic residential/business area.  They had the most beautiful daffodils blooming along the road side when we were there.

Here you can shop for items made by local artists.  I purchased the cutest handmade salsa bowl as my souvenir of the Smokies.

Here you will also find Ely's Mill

I don't know if it was just a relaxing, quiet end to our very eventful day, but we just loved every minute driving the Roaring Forks Motor Road.  I just remember such blissful peace and serenity and I couldn't think of a better way to end our week at the Smokies.

Be sure to check out the two short videos.  The first one shows all the Trilliums in bloom as we drive along in the car, and the second one is the gorgeous Roaring Forks stream.

 Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Our Smokey Mountain Vacation - Day Five, Part Four: Grotto Falls

This post is part of a travel series of our vacation in the Smokey Mountains.  To start at the beginning, go HERE!  The rest of the posts in chronological order are HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE!

Hello!  If you missed me last week I am back from a one week blogging break.  I didn't intend to take a break, but the kids and grandkids were all here for the 4th of July holiday week and we were so busy I never had time to blog.  We had so much fun and I can't wait to tell you all about it, but I really want to finish this travel series to the Smokey Mountains first.  I'm almost done with this series, I promise!  I think I have about two posts left.  

This week I am sharing our hike to Grotto Falls.  Grotto Falls is a very popular hike in Smokey Mountain National Park because it is the only waterfall in the park you can "legally" walk behind.  I say this, because my hubby and many others disobeyed the warning signs, and climbed the rocks and walked behind Rainbow Falls.

Grotto Falls is 25 feet high.

The hike to Grotto Falls is rated as "Easy" as it is only 2.6 miles roundtrip with a 565 elevation gain.  However, to get the "Easy" hike you need to access the trailhead from the Roaring Forks Motor Road which is closed in the winter.  You can get to Grotto Falls from other trails, but then you will add another 3.4 miles to your trip.  When we were there it was very early spring, and the road did not open until the VERY LAST DAY of our vacation.  I was so grateful, the road actually opened on our last day, because it was one of my favorite highlights of our vacation.

The hike to the waterfall is very unimpressive.  It did not offer amazing views like Laurel Falls or have constant beauty all along the trail like Alum Cave Trail.  And we actually found the river area leading up to the falls kind of "messy", filled with old fallen timber washed down the mountain.  I know, it's "natural", but not very photogenic.

We did come across our first snake on this trail.  This black snake was just hanging out in a tree along side the trail.

You cross four small streams on this trail without footbridges.

Because we reached this trail in the late afternoon it was quite busy.  I much would have preferred being there bright and early in the morning to have the whole place to myself.  But we were so busy visiting other areas of the park on day five, that we couldn't get to Grotto Falls until late in the day.  I'm sure the crowds affected my feelings about this trail. Perhaps I would have had a more positive feeling if there were less people.

When we reached Grotto Falls, everyone waited "in line" to have their picture taken behind the falls.

It is quite slippery behind the falls as the stone is constantly wet.  There are no handrails, so I was grateful to have my walking sticks.

Below I've added three short videos.  The first one is when we first started driving the Roaring Forks Motor Road.  It was my favorite scenic road in the park.  I liked it more than the Cades Cove Loop...and I really loved that one too!  I will share more about our drive on the Roaring Forks Motor Road next week, but the video gives you just a taste of what's to come.  It is much more narrow of a road than the Cades Cove Loop, and there is also an elevation gain that can be pretty scary on such a narrow road.

The next two videos show Grotto Falls.  The first one is taken from the front of the falls and the second one is taken from behind.

 Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Our Smokey Mountains Vacation - Day Five, Part One: Newfound Gap and Mingo Falls

This post is part of a travel series of our vacation in the Smokey Mountains.  To start at the beginning, go HERE!  The rest of the posts in chronological order are HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE!

Day Five was our very last day in the Smokies and we knew that if we were going to be able to scratch ALMOST EVERYTHING off our "must see" list, we had to do it all today!    As always, we awoke before dawn and headed out to find one of the tallest waterfalls in the Appalachian Mountains.  One the way there, we pulled over to enjoy some of the amazing scenic views.

The best part of waking up so early is getting to see the sunrise over the Smokey Mountains.  

The Smokey Mountains is called "The Land of Blue Smoke" because of the "smoke-like, natural blue haze, and mist-like clouds that rise following a rainstorm".  The Cherokee gave this beautiful land its name (source).

We had a very ambitious plan today!  First we would stop at Newfound Gap to see the sunrise, then we would head out of the park to North Carolina to see one of the tallest waterfalls in the area.  After that we stopped at a farm museum and working mill, then off to Clingman's Dome, did a short  hike to Grotto Falls, then finished the day with a beautiful scenic drive on the Roaring Fork Motor Trail.  It was a long, but wonderful day for we managed to scratch off almost everything from our "must see" list.  Of course, I can't cover it all in one post, so Day Five will be broken into six  parts.

I really love scenic roads where they have pull overs where you can pull off to the side of the road and enjoy the view.  Of course we never get anywhere too fast, because we always have to stop at every single one!  They are all so gorgeous and the next one always seem to be better than the previous one.

It was a one hour and thirteen minute drive from our hotel, through the Smokey's and to Mingo Falls, but it was one of the most beautiful hour long drives I've ever taken in my life.

At 5,046 feet, NewFound Gap is the lowest drivable pass through the Smokey Mountain National Park.  A  "gap" is a low point in a mountain ridge.  NewFound Gap is also the boundary line between Tennessee and North Carolina.  

Newfound Gap has a HUGE parking lot so you can get out, walk around, take plenty of pictures, and just SOAK IN THE VIEWS!

After viewing Newfound Gap, we were back in the car and headed out of the Smokey National Park in search of the tallest waterfall in the area:  Mingo Falls.  They do not make this waterfall that easy to find, thank goodness for GPS.  It is located in the Big Cove community just north of Cherokee.  There is a cute shopping area called "Saunooke Village" only five miles from the falls, but we were there so early, nothing was open yet.

This is a super short, but steep trail, only 100 yards.   First, you have to hike up a lot of stairs.

After the stairs, there is a very rugged, rocky path.

But then you are suddenly treated to this beautiful 120 foot waterfall.  Isn't she a beauty?

Of course we both had to have our pictures taken with this beauty behind us.

And finally, be sure to watch the video below where I set my eyes on this gorgeous waterfall for the first time.  It was such an exhilarating experience!

I will be back next week with our visit to the Mountain Farm Museum.

 

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

Our Smokey Mountains Vacation - Day Three, Part One: Cades Cove Loop Road

This post is part of a travel series of our vacation in the Smokey Mountains.  To start at the beginning, go HERE!  The rest of the post in chronological order are HERE!

After a very rigorous hike to Rainbow Falls the day before,  our aching bodies were ready for a more relaxing day so my husband and I decided to drive the Cades Cove Loop Road.

When I was planning our trip to the Smokies, the Cades Cove Loop Road constantly came up in my Pinterest feed.  It is one of the most popular scenic roads in the park.  When I looked at other people's pictures, I will be honest, I was not impressed.  I couldn't understand why this road was so popular.  Nevertheless, I had to see it for myself to find out why this place was so well-loved, and once I did, I understood why!  Driving the Cades Cove Loop Road was one of the biggest highlights of my time in the Smokies!  The landscape was so serene and peaceful.  The prairie land looked so beautiful with the scenic mountain back drop.

When preparing for our trip I read a lot of blogs where they talked about how busy this road was and how you could be stuck in traffic for hours, but that was not our experience.  We arrived at the entrance to the loop before the gate was open and waited in line.  We had to ride in a caravan of cars for a little while, but once we pulled over to the first stop all the cars went past us and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  

It takes over an hour just to get from Gatlinburg to Cades Cove, but the road just to get to the gate was part of the adventure.  We drove through tunnels, saw rivers and waterfalls, and a turkey!

Cades Cove is an 11 mile, one way loop.  Allow two to four hours to tour Cades Cove, longer if you plan on doing any of the trails.

There are many, many stops along Cades Cove Road.  There are hiking trails (we didn't take any this day as we were spent from yesterday's hike), churches, scenic views, and many homesteads.  So many people just drive the loop and never stop, but I think we stopped at almost all of them.  We especially loved the churches.  

There is supposed to be a guide that you can buy for $1.00 at the start of the loop, but all the boxes were empty when we were there.  The guide apparently tells you the history of all the stops along the road.

There are three churches in Cades Cove.  We missed the first church but thankfully caught the next two.

This church had a cemetery right outside its windows.  It seems kind of eerie to have a cemetery so close to a church (although I know that was common back in the day) but I can't help to wonder as people sat in church and saw the gravestones right out the church window if perhaps they paid better attention to the sermons 😀

Cades Cove is so rich in history.  If you're a history buff, you will love Cades Cove. Cherokee Indians hunted this land for hundreds of years.  The first European settlers arrived in 1818.

Here are pictures of the insides of two of the churches we stopped at.  They are very plain and simple.

Deer, black bears, coyotes, and turkeys are frequently spotted in Cades Cove.  When we were there we saw deer, a coyote, and lots of turkeys, and one bear so far in the distance I couldn't even make him out.

I could not get over the beauty of the landscape. Pictures do not do it justice.  No wonder I was unimpressed with the photos I saw on Pinterest.

We finally spotted some deer!

About half way through the loop you come to the Cades Cove Visitor Center.  Here are restrooms and a small gift shop.  On the grounds is the Cable Mills Historic Area.

There is a beautiful old farm along a river on the grounds.

Cable Mill

I was so happy that we were able to go inside all these old farmhouses and cabins.  It was so interesting to see how the settlers lived back then.

Every barn we saw in the park had this same shape.  They are very different from Wisconsin barns!

Can you see the turkey walking in the field below?

After our tour of the Cable Mills Historic Area it was back in the car again, but we stopped many more times to tour all the log cabins and farms along the road.

I think I fell in love with every cabin and said to my husband "I'll live here".  I imagined myself sitting on the front porch every morning with a coffee and Bible in hand looking at this gorgeous Mountain View.

This is the backyard of the house whose front porch I was standing on.

Then I arrived at the next cabin and I wanted to live there!  I loved how this one was nestled up against the woods.

Another funky looking barn.  How do those overhangs not collapse?

This cabin looked so similar to the one above that I had to recheck the pictures to make sure it wasn't the same one.  Just like the suburbs today where all the houses seem to look alike, so did the cabins of Cades Cove!  😀.  Each one though had a very unique property, it was so hard to decide which one I would rather live on.  They were all so beautiful in their own way.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Cades Cove.  I feel it really symbolizes the history and the serene beauty of the area.

Oh, I loved Cades Cove.  It was such a beautiful, relaxing morning.  But our day wasn't over yet, we were up so early that we had plenty of time to explore more!  So come back next week for Part Two!

Finally, here are two very short videos to give you a sense of the peaceful beauty of Cades Cove.

Have a Great Day! Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!