July 12, 2010
Today was a great test for my new North Face Gor-tex jacket. When we left this morning to go hiking, it looked like it might rain so we brought our rain gear with us. Before we even got the trail, it had started. The trail was 5 miles round trip to Alum Caves Bluff. It is warm enough that the rain wasn’t bothering us, and we only have 2 days here, so we want to make the most of it. My jacket worked great, although, being in the rain for hours, you’re still going to get pretty wet. We were both wearing our quick dry clothes, so once the rain stopped for a while, we were pretty comfortable again. We did see a pretty view at one point, but the rain pretty much wreaked havoc on the visibility. In fact, once we finished that hike, we drove to Clingman’s Dome, one of the highest peaks around, but by then the fog was so thick, visibility was about 100 yards. And it was still raining. Not drizzling. Raining.
On our way in to the park yesterday with the trailer, we tried to stop at the Visitors Center to learn about the park and get information so we could make plans but we were foiled by the fact that ALL the RV parking spots were taken by cars, and not RVs. Very irritating. Since we didn’t get there yesterday, we stopped in this afternoon.
Smoky Mountain National Park got its name from the blue/gray mist that hangs around the mountains most of the time. It is the most visited national park, with 9 million visitors a year- more than double any other national park. Half of the land for the park was bought with money donated by the people of Tennessee and North Carolina. John D. Rockefeller donated the rest of the money needed. The campground we are in has over 200 sites, and its one of 3 campgrounds in the park. They do take the bears here pretty seriously. We had to sign a paper acknowledging that we are aware that we can’t leave any food items outside if we aren’t out there with them. No coolers, no food, no grills. And if you do leave a cooler out- the rangers take it, and leave a note for you to go to the ranger station if you want your cooler. And you get to pay a $75 fine. There have been several bear attacks and they have had to relocate or euthanize many bears, due to campers leaving food around.
Once we had our fill of the visitor’s center, with the rain having stopped, we headed out on a 2.6 mile walk to Laurel Falls. It is a paved trail, which made it less than exciting, and the falls were ok, but nothing spectacular. I am not sure any falls will be spectacular after seeing Yosemite, but you never know, and at least we got some exercise.
We have no internet, or phone, so I posted this when we drove into town for fuel
They definitely do take their bears seriously. But I hate the thought of a bear having to die because a human was thoughtless.
ReplyDeleteAnd I would have been beyond irritated with the cars parked in the rv spots.