Heads, Carolina (10-08-22)

 As I debated the title for this post, I couldn’t get the words to a particular song out of my head, soooo….(google Cole Swindell- She Had Me At Heads Carolina)

I know I just wrote about going East but now we are going west- but I guess I should first write about what we did in North Carolina, since that’s probably a post in and of itself.

Our week with Mike and Julie was a whirlwind of activity…

During the day, we did several hikes, including two in Stone Mountain State Park (not to be confused with Stone Mountain in Georgia).

Our first hike the four of us took a 4.5 mile loop to visit Wolf Rock.

The other hike we did in the park was done differently. To hike the Stone Mountain Trail loop is 5.5 miles with 1000 ft of gain.  Paul and I hiked the loop, and Mike and Julie made it an out an back hike, and we met partway, at a waterfall, where we had lunch.

On our trail, it seemed like if it wasn’t stairs, it was a cable to help you keep your footing on the steep climb.

The views from Stone Mountain itself were pretty awesome.

Once we came off the mountain, we got some views of it from down below.

Eventually we had to descend 300 steps to get to the waterfall where we were meeting Mike and Julie.

…and the four of us finished the hike together!  It worked out very well.

When we weren’t hiking we were still adventuring.  Mike showed us the nearby cabin that used to belong to his parents, and we drove up to a lookout on the Blue Ridge Parkway to watch for migrating birds.

The evenings were full of Happy Hours and shared dinners.

Sometimes it was just the four of us and sometimes we met up with some of their friends- what a great group of people.

Our last night there, the four of us cooked a Mexican Feast for everyone.

Although we thought about extending our stay, we also need to get back west, and we have done the fast dash so many times, we wanted to be able to stop along the way and see some stuff- so, I looked online and snagged 3 nights in Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

We have only been to this park once and it rained the entire time we were there, so with good weather predicted, we were hoping to see what we couldn’t see last time-the main thing being the views from Clingmans Dome.

We waited our turn for a spot in the parking lot, and then we, along with thousands of other people, walked up the paved trail to the lookout. The views are pretty spectacular, and so, worth the crowds.

We were happy, however, that we knew about the “back trail” from the parking lot to the dome.

It had the advantage of being, longer, unpaved, and almost deserted. So that’s the way we went back.

We continued along the scenic road, stopping at lookouts whenever we saw a view we liked.

After one day in the park Paul made a decision. He was done with the crowds. 

We pulled out the park map and chose an area  to explore that seemed more off the beaten path for our second day in the park.  We chose a huge loop that took most of the day but we were fine with that.

We encountered very few people along this route- 4 wheel drive recommended. It wasn’t the most exciting drive, but that’s ok- I spent most of my time looking for bears. Nope, didn’t see one.

Most of the people we did see were at the small visitor center. We noticed a lot of people standing in a field, taking pictures of something. As we drove by, of course, we checked it out. Deer.  All I could think was that these people don’t get out of the city much.

We found a short hike to another lookout tower- this one called Look Rock.  The views were great and we saw just 3 people!

The main drag back into the park has the nickname “Tail of the Dragon”. This is one of those “bring it if ya got it” drives.

 It’s a dream drive for anyone in a sports car or on a motorcycle- Paul said it’s banked so well, he enjoyed driving it in the Jeep.  About every 1/4 mile there was someone with a camera and a website name plastered on their vehicle so you could log on and buy their pictures. 

We found a popular pull off and sat to watch the motorcycles and sports cars, many of which were sporting Go-Pros, zip by us, cruising along at a rate considerably over the speed limit. We were chatting with a guy who was driving an electric motorcycle, and this bike pulled up, which is also electric-and belongs to his brother. 

One of the things I did enjoy about Smoky Mountain, is that it reminded me of home (Massachusetts).  The trees are similar, and the rock is similar. I also enjoyed the crisp autumn air, particularly at our campsite, which was in the trees, mere feet from a stream. No matter how cold it gets in Arizona, we don’t get that crisp feeling you get back east. 

But that also means it is cold- and time to move.

Smoky Mountains to Anderson SC

This National Park has a scenic drive, as most of them do.  We try to drive these roads since they usually have a lot of  "bang for your buck".  The average person spends 4 hours when they visit a national park, and the scenic drives are designed so that visitors can see lots of interesting things in a short time.  Here, we passed by trailheads for several interesting hikes.  We hiked 5 miles (R/T) to Abrams Falls. Had we brought swim suits we could have gone swimming once we got there, but I didn't even poke my foot in the water.  The humidity is so high, I was afraid my feet wouldn't dry enough to go back into my boots. Once we were back in the truck, we continued on the drive.  There are many old buildings that were preserved and we stopped to look at some of them.  The Oliver family lived on this land for over 100 years before the land was taken to make the park.  Many of the original buildings are still here, although some of them have been moved.  One farmhouse has a "stranger room"- a room attached to the main house but with no access to the interior of the main house. They used it when someone passing through the area needed a place to sleep.

     Once we had seen enough, we veered off and went exploring down a narrow gravel road.  Halfway to the end, a bear crossed the street right behind our truck.  We watched him disappear into the thicket.  I did get a picture but not a great one.   Further down the road we were surprised to see a Mama bear and her cub cross the street.   We realized that if we turned left onto the next road, we'd see them again, so we did that and watched them approach.  Once they went off through the woods again, we moved to the next road and waited for them.  This time I got out of the truck and onto the toolbox in the back, so I could get a better picture. This was a main road, so when the bears did show up, a lot of cars stopped to watch them, but we had prime seats!
     The weather once again ruined our plans for the afternoon.  We were hoping to go tubing down the nearby river, but the heavens opened and the rumble of thunder could be heard, so we gave it up and went home to eat dinner.  The humidity is pretty uncomfortable and we were both looking forward to getting to a campground with electricity.
Yesterday we drove from the Smokies to Anderson, SC.  Anderson is near two large lakes -Hartwell and Keowee. We are checking the area to see if its "retirement worthy" for when we decide to stop traveling. The lakes are great but the towns don't seem to be what we are looking for.  Our original intent for this week was to spend it in Lexington, SC, near Lake Murray, but we decided that since we'll be there for 2 weeks, we can afford to take this week to look at other lakes.

     We took off this morning and headed to Stumphouse Tunnel.  This tunnel was supposed to connect Charleston SC with the midwest, and was started just before the civil war.  Unfortunately, the mountain is solid granite and of course there were no power tools to use.  They averaged clearing about 200 ft of tunnel per month and after excavating 4300 ft  of the 5800 ft needed, they gave up.  Its been abandoned since then but the first 800 ft is open to the public.  There's also a very pretty waterfall nearby- we just viewed it from the platform and didn't hike down to it.
 

Hiking the Smokies in the Rain

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