Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park

Now is the part where Rob geeks out on antique firearms.  The visitor center here has a large piece of the Fuller Gun Collection.  The oldest piece is a matchlock arquebus from around 1600.  They get newer from there.

After geeking out on guns until the visitor center closed on November 4th, we started checking out the battlefield and promptly realized we needed most of a day for it. We headed to a nearby KOA for the night (quite a mediocre one, but at least it was in a convenient location), then returned the next day. Back at Chickamauga on the 5th, we decided to ride our bikes on the park loop. It was a great idea.

Cannons outside the visitor center.

There are stone markers around the battlefield representing every unit that took place in the battle.  The close ones here were Union, the distant ones were the Confederates.  This is pretty representative of how far apart the lines were throughout the battlefield.

Big guns in the woods.

The view from atop a memorial tower.

Us atop a memorial tower.

This is where General George Thomas held off the Confederates.  This allowed Union troops to safely withdraw after General William Rosecrans had fled (he was later relieved of duty because of it).

This house was used as a hospital for both sides.

We wrapped up the day an hour or two before sunset, then headed southwest again, towards New Orleans.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

 We arrived at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center for Great Smoky Mountains National Park late in the afternoon on Saturday, November 2nd. There were elk in the meadow, attracting loads of visitors.

Elk at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center.

The bull amid his harem.

We headed for Smokemont Campground, near the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, which turned out to be full (we forgot it was Saturday!). The Cherokee KOA ended up being our stopover for the night, which had a hot tub, heated pool, hot showers, and 24-hour laundry. We took advantage of all of these amenities and felt like we were quite indulgent to do so. :-D

The next morning (Sunday, November 3rd), we drove to the nearby access point for Mingo Falls, which was pretty, even though it wasn't a high flow time for the waterfall. Afterwards, we drove into Great Smoky Mountains National Park again. We decided to go check out Clingmans Dome, which was a lovely idea due to all the snowy scenery on the way up, and the 360º view from the observation tower after a solid uphill hike.

Snow on the way to the top of Clingmans Dome.

Ice built up on a flower, on the way to the top of Clingmans Dome.  

Snow covered scenery

Icicles by the parking lot for Clingmans Dome.

360º panorama from the top of Clingmans Dome observation tower.

More snowy landscape as we headed back from Clingmans Dome.

After our trip to Clingmans Dome, we headed toward Sugarlands Visitor Center, then turned west towards Cades Cove. We enjoyed the view along the road, turned off the main road to check out Elkmont Campground, and stopped for lunch along the river. 

Pretty leaves along our drive.

Riverside lunch spot!

After lunch, we headed to Cades Cove Campground, where we picked out a spot and enjoyed some time in the late afternoon sunlight, played with some boules (think bocce ball), sat around a fire as evening rolled in, and jawed with our neighbors.

Boules!

Evening light through leaves above our campsite.

Fire!

Monday, November 4th, we got up earlyish and headed towards the Cades Cove loop, in hopes to avoid traffic backups. It worked out pretty well. We cruised along the loop, then parked to hike up to the Elijah Oliver Place, which had a cabin and barn and other cool old outbuildings. We stumbled into a conversation with an interesting couple, talked about photographing wildlife, hiking amidst nature, interactions with wild animals, and all sorts of other things. We ended up walking back to the car with them, stopping to admire a fuzzy wuzzy along the way.

Cool trough in an old barn, carved out of a tree.

Fuzzy wuzzy!

After our hike, we got to see deer in the meadow, enjoyed the rest of the loop drive, and were especially amused by the overly zealous warning signs for bicyclists.

Deer in Cades Cove.

Oooooo, be careful!  This smooth paved road has a minor downhill grade, you might DIE!  OH NOES!!   I wonder if these people have ever even ridden a bicycle.

We wrapped up our visit to the Great Smoky Mountains by checking out a few easy access waterfalls: Meigs Falls and The Sinks.

Meigs Falls

The river near Meigs Falls.

The Sinks.

The river above The Sinks.

We left the Great Smoky Mountains National Park by way of Highway 73 to Townsend, TN, then headed southwest towards Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park.

Blue Ridge Parkway

We got on the Blue Ridge Parkway Halloween afternoon and enjoyed countless beautiful views as we drove south along it. We spent the majority of three days on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was fantastic.

Looking down a long, long way at one of the first of many, many, many, many epic views from the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Rob may have gotten a bit carried away with the panoramic shots.

But there were lots and lots of them.

One of the best leaf views of the entire trip.  Vermont was about the only place that was in competition with the Parkway.

Oh look, another panorama.

This is as big as the parkway ever gets.

Old skool boozamification!

Yet more leafy pretty valley shots.

Looking down the Appalachian Trail, which wove across the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Naked rock. Naturally. It was too hard to mine, so they had to leave it be.

Schist along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Looking down into the valleys around the Blue Ridge Parkway as we took a detour for a short road closure.

Lovely old farm country on our detour.

Our favorite overlook and the schisty native rocks they used for the walls of the overlooks.

Yes, the leaves really were that vivid.

Pretty red berries on a blue backdrop.

Naked trees and mountain ranges maybe 50 miles from Asheville, NC

Lines of mountains on the horizon like ocean waves.

Weaverville yo!  As nearly anyone in my hometown of Weaverville can tell you, there is another one in North Carolina.  It turns out that it happened to be about 10 miles out of our way off of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It was a must go…

Rob's back in Weaverville! But wait, something doesn't seem quite right.

South East homies...

They even have their own police force!

Main Street in Weaverville, NC.

Dolls made by a woman in Weaverville, NC for the Weaverville, CA centennial.  They know about us too! 

We drove south from Weaverville, NC and hopped back on the Blue Ridge Parkway, taking it to its terminus by Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The weather had its merry way with us on the way, making for yet more interesting views.

More naturally naked rock, forming a large dome rising out of the autumnal trees.

Rain haze in the distance.

Highest elevation of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Hail and fat drops of rain along our drive. Oh and there was a crazy lot of wind, too.

Snow at an overlook of gorgeous valleys, heading up to Waterrock Knob Visitor Center.

Just one of the gorgeous views from the parking lot at Waterrock Knob Visitor Center.

Rain and views at Waterrock Knob Visitor Center.

Heading down to Great Smoky Mountains National Park.