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.