So much to tell you! We spent the last two days in Smoky Mountain National Park, the most visited park in the US. I sure believe it! We arrived at the park after traveling through, what I had envisioned, would be the sleepy town of Gatlinburg only to find it one big traffic jam and tons of tourists. We were so happy to get to our campsite, which was so different, quiet, with sounds of the river in the background. Smoky Mountain is the most visited park in the US, almost double the next closest and we believe it. We had to time our activities around traffic. Despite the traffic, it was very beautiful, we really enjoyed our time there and wished we had another day.
Because we were only there two days we really packed it in. Did some driving and hiking. This morning before leaving the park we drove down to Cades Cove and knew ahead of time it would be slow going. It is an 11 mile loop, but our 3-5 mile an hour pace really tested our patience and we had timed it to be there early in the morning to avoid the crowds.
After that we headed to Mammoth Caves NP where we are now and staying for two nights. We came real close to running out of gas on the way. It was a long day and we were both not paying close enough attention to our gas gauge. The fuel light came on telling us we had only 30 miles and we were not anywhere close to a gas station. Long story short, when we finally arrived at the closest one - we put 23.2 gallons in a 23 gallon tank. Needless to say, we were holding our breath on this one. I am guessing we won't let that happen again.
We finally got to the Mammoth Cave campground and thankfully, moved into the Central Time Zone so we gained an hour today. Got ourselves situated and then watched as a driver tried to maneuver a trailer into a campsite. It was painful to watch while Ralph cooked dinner. She tried for about 45 minutes, finally gave up after keeping three vehicles waiting all that time and then went back around the loop. Ralph decided to come to the rescue and helped guide her in (he was surprised the waiting drivers weren't helping her). He definitely knows how to back a trailer in and was able to get her in a few minutes later. He asked her if she was going to unhook the trailer hitch and she asked, "What's that?". How she was able to drive it amazed us both.
While on our hike yesterday afternoon, we came across a bear that had been tranquilized by the rangers. They suspected she had been taking campers' backpacks. They tagged her and removed an "unnecessary" tooth to tell how old she was (was that really necessary?). On our way to the end of the trail we saw them tagging her and taking the tooth (2nd photo) and on our way back, she had woken up and they were shooing her back into the forest (1st photo). We were about 20 feet away from her when they were shooing her back into the forest. The ranger said that by tagging her they would know the next time if she was the one taking the backpacks and would move her to a different location.
You two are really truckin'....and at the same time, seeing some wonderful countryside. What a great opportunity to visit all those amazing places in the U.S. that we always hear about and never see. Thanks for doing this!
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