Last week I moved my girlfriend, Dianna, back from NYC to Arkansas and we decided to stop off in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It would turn out to be a big mistake. While heading out of the city we realized it was Memorial Day weekend and every suburban family in America would be fleeing their gated communities for the first summer vacation of 2007. After crossing the Tennessee border we stopped at a welcome center to get some info on the park. That's when we learned The Smokies were the MOST VISITED park in America, getting twice as many visitors as the Grand Canyon. I began to realized we might be making a huge mistake! So instead of driving to the park that night we found a spot to camp in the national forest off some Tennessee back road and had a great night in the woods. Monday morning we headed to the park and entered Tourist Town, USA (aka Gatlinburg) which should have been a foreshadow to run like hell. But still determined to check out some peaks we ventured on. Well to make a long story short - it took about 5 minutes in the park to realize this was not the place we wanted to be. Stressful traffic jams are not what I'm looking for when I go to the woods. So we found a pull off that didn't have 40 cars in the parking lot and hiked up to a small waterfall; then high-tailed it back to the Natural State.
2 comments:
The Tennesse side of the Smokies is pretty much like that all year long. Next time, try the North Carolina side, equally beautiful ...fewer tourists.
The scenery looked great, it was just infested with people and Branson-esque tourist traps. I'd definitely go back to find a more isolated spot when I have more time.
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