Day 12 - Heintooga Ridge & Balsam Mountain Roads

 

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Weather - clear and sunny, high of 80F in the lowlands and 72F in the mountains

Steps - Shaun: 5,468, Shannon: 4,329

Varmints - 2 elk, turkey vulture, numerous turkeys, small raptor we didn't see well enough to identify, chipmunk

How to describe today? Disappointing? No, too harsh. So-so? Also not quite accurate. Great, until it wasn't? Better. 

We decided to make today a driving day to give Shaun's knee a rest, so we planned a trip to the southern edge of the park, including a trip around the Heintooga Ridge/Balsam Mountain loop, a visit to Fontana Dam and Lake, and a return to Townsend via the Foothills Parkway along the western border of the park. As you can see from the map above, things did not go quite according to plan.

We had a late night, so we woke up and got ready an hour later than usual. We left the cabin after 10am, and started toward the Townsend entrance to the park. On the way, Shaun decided that she wanted to stop at a little collection of shops on Hwy 321 because they had a gallery and other gift shop-types of places. It was a little disappointing because the gallery was closed and the rest of the stores didn't have much to see, but Shaun did get a pretty teal speckled jelly roll pan that will go well in her kitchen.

After that little detour, we got back on track and headed down Little River Gorge Road to Newfound Gap Road. We took that to its end at the Oconaluftee Visitors Center, where we stopped because it was open! The exhibits were really well done, explaining a little bit about the history of the Cherokee and Euro-Americans who have inhabited this area. We'll learn more about the Cherokee who lived here once we move on to Bryson City.  What we do know is that the people who remained after the Trail of Tears  formed what is now the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians.  There's a Museum of the Cherokee Indian in the nearby town of Cherokee that we're excited to visit as well.

We did briefly drive through the Big Cove community in the Qualla Boundary, the traditional name for the Eastern Cherokee Indian Nation Land Trust, and it was super cool because the road signs had both the English names and the Cherokee names written in the characters of the Cherokee syllabary (the written version of the Cherokee language, with each character representing a syllable). We're excited to spend more time in the area and learn more about the Eastern Band and their culture.

We spent a bit of time in the shop at the visitors center, buying another jigsaw puzzle (of course!), more postcards (double of course!), and other goodies, before continuing on. In order to get on the Heintooga Ridge Road, we traveled up the southern-most section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. This is something else we would like to explore further, as it runs all the way up to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and we'll only be seeing specific sections of it on this trip. The overlooks were beautiful, and we stopped at one to eat our al fresco lunch. 

From the parkway, we turned onto the loop road, which is paved for the first stretch and had several beautiful viewpoints looking out on both sides of the ridge, toward Newfound Gap and Clingmans Dome on one and Maggie Valley, which we haven't yet explored, on the other. Just at the point where the pavement ends is a short trail to the Heintooga Overlook. The overlook had some benches perfectly positioned to take in the beauty of the view, so it was a great place to stop for a few minutes, breathe in the fresh air, and enjoy the day. The path was lined in delicate wildflowers, and it made for a nice little jaunt to stretch our legs.

The road became Balsam Mountain Road at the unpaved section, which was one-way and "primitive." We thought it was better maintained than the track we took to get to Cataloochee, and it was nice that it was one-way so Shaun didn't have to worry about meeting someone abruptly around the next curve. The road followed an old logging railroad line along the sides of the mountain and down into a river valley, starting at 5,535 feet in elevation and ending at about 2,000 feet. 

Along the way were numerous wildflowers, including a different kind of trillium than we had seen before, and lush forests, starting with conifers and mountain laurels at the top and changing to deciduous trees and rhododendron groves down below. 

We didn't see much in the way of vistas, unfortunately, catching glimpses of the mountains through the trees every once in awhile, but it was nice to be in the cool comfort of the forest for awhile after our vista-heavy day yesterday. 

At Pin Oak Gap, we swung around and started heading back toward the end of the loop. One fascinating thing our road guide pointed out was that we would be passing the headwaters of the Straight Fork on the road. As we wound our way down, we would continue to encounter the Straight Fork, and we would see it grow from a small trickle at the start to a rushing river by the time we left the road. It was exciting to follow along with the "gradual maturity" (as the book put it) of the river.

Just before we left the gravel road to get on Big Cove Road and travel toward Fontana Dam to continue our day, we started to hear weird noises coming from the Jeep's right front tire. It started as a banging, then scratching, and settled into the sound of something rubbing against something else. We can only hear it when the car is moving, so it's definitely related to the tire or breaks, not the engine, but Shaun didn't feel any different in the handling or breaking of the car, so we're not exactly sure what it is. Still, no way were we going to continue on our regularly scheduled road trip around the western side of the park with a potentially faulty brake. Especially when we were already on the opposite side of the park from our cabin and had a 90-minute trip back up Newfound Gap Road as the shortest route back.

We gingerly made our way back, with Shaun trying not to brake too much (kinda hard when weenies who didn't know how to drive on mountain roads held us up), scaring all the elk we saw away with the noise, and by the time we got to the cabin, the sound was basically a rubbing noise when the brake was deployed. We're going to take the car to a mechanic tomorrow, which has the potential to derail all our plans going forward, but better safe than sorry, especially on these mountain roads. We'll let you know what happens!

Day 11 - Newfound Gap Road

 

Tuesday, May 17, 2022

Weather - sunny, high 60sF

Steps - Shaun: 20,331, Shannon: 16,238

Varmints - 4 elk, 1 (or possibly 2) bears, turkeys, barn swallow, some kind of hawk

Today was a big hiking day, featuring our most difficult hike of the trip up to Andrews Bald from Clingman's Dome. We had been hemming and hawing about whether to go since the hike is 3.6 miles, longer than any of the others we've done on this trip, and more strenuous as well. Spoiler alert: decided to do it, with mixed results.

We slept an hour later this morning because of our marathon jigsaw puzzling session last night, and we didn't leave the cabin until after 10am. As we were turning the corner away from the cabin, a hawk swooped by and landed in a tree along the road. We didn't get any pictures of him, but he was a portent of things to come.

We decided to drive straight through to Clingman's Dome to hike as early as possible, and then we would continue on to the Oconaluftee Visitors Center at the end of Newfound Gap Road before turning around and taking in all the sights and overlooks the road had to offer on the way back north. So, we powered through down the road, listening to the Road Trippin' playlist we had made on the drive down from Michigan (it was a sudden burst of creativity, with both of us throwing out songs that fit the rhythm of driving and resulted in a 11-hour playlist perfect for cruising down the road with the windows open). There was construction on the road to Clingsmans Dome and lots of traffic, so by the time we were parked, peed, and packed to trek, it was after noon. 

We knew from our research that the first mile of the Andrews Bald trail would be downhill (which meant the last mile of the hike would be all uphill) and pretty rocky, but we didn't realize it was basically down steps most of the way. Good thing we brought our hiking poles because it was downright scrambly in some areas. 

We arrived at the bald, a break in the trees with an open grassy area at its center, and we were ready for a rest. We sat and ate oranges and trail mix for awhile, taking in the panoramic views of the Smokies below. Unfortunately, there were quite a few bushes around the open field, which blocked a lot of the view. Still, it was a very nice place to take a load off and relax for a little while.

Shaun needed to pee again, so she popped a squat (Shaun says this should be "cop" a squat, but apparently I'm just old and my saying has been changed without my permission!) behind some of those bushes on the bald, and then we started our ascent. The first little bit was fine, winding through a dense forest of high-elevation trees looking more like New Hampshire than North Carolina. Logs covered in thick mats of moss and wildflowers lined the pathway. We even saw some late-blooming trilliums!

Then Shaun fell about a quarter of the way back. She tripped on a rock and pitched forward, hitting her knees on some rocks and scraping them and her hands up a bit. One of her knees gives her trouble sometimes, so that one in particular was twinging something fierce afterward. And we still had to hike up all those steps!

We took our time going back up, stopping frequently, and Shaun used the hiking poles much more heavily than before. We eventually did make it back to Clingman's Dome, completing the hike in 3 1/2 hours. Shaun's doing fine now, but she's probably going to be feeling a bit sore for a few days.

We hobbled our way back to the car to unload our packs and then checked out the Visitors Center at the Dome. It was small but had some postcards we hadn't seen before and a yummy extra creamy chocolate bar that was a perfect treat after our excursions.

We took some pictures of the gorgeous vistas visible from the edge of the parking lot (Shaun said she would have rather just gone with those rather than hiking to the bald to see the partially blocked views there—she might be a bit biased, though), and then headed to the Collins Creek Picnic Area for a delightful al fresco dunch (it was almost 5pm by this point). 

After dunch, we drove the rest of the way down the Newfound Gap Road, trying to make it to the Oconaluftee Visitors Center, which sits at the southern border of the park, before it closed. Unfortunately, the park service information we had was in error. We thought the visitors center was open until 6:00, but when we got there at 5:45, it was already closed. The restrooms were open, though, so we made use of them and promised to return on another day. Additionally, we were bummed because we’d read that this was an area that elk often roam, but alas, there were none to be found.

But wait!

To round out our trip for the day, our intention was to go back up the Newfound Gap Road, this time stopping at any overlooks that interested us. However, about a half mile up the road at the Mingus Mill, Shaun happened to glance into the parking lot, and lo and behold…there were a couple elk just hanging out there. Seriously! Naturally, Shaun did a quick u-turn in the middle of the road and yelled for Shannon to grab the camera.

Despite Shannon’s misgivings, we went ahead and pulled all the way into the parking lot (past the elk) so that we could get some pictures. We didn’t even need to get out of our car because it turned out that there were four female elk just grazing and not caring about all the crazy tourists surrounding them one little bit. We got some good shots of them.  The smallest one had a weird collar on that we wondered about (but have no information on…yet). Anyway, we hung out with them for a bit and then headed north on Newfound Gap Road.

Just an aside bit of information is needed here.  We bought a book called the Smokies Road Guide that is very cool.  It describes basically everything you can expect to see on every road in the park, and Shannon has been making a point of reading the pertinent information out loud while we are driving.  This is important to mention here because, since we’d already driven down the road once, we knew what to expect and could look out for the stuff that interested us.

The first one of these pull-offs that we wanted to hit was called the Webb Overlook because it’s directly across the mountains from Clingman’s Dome, and you can actually see the Observation Tower if you have a good enough camera. Naturally, Shaun does, and Shannon (the star photographer in the family) was able to capture it despite the distance.

In addition to the Dome, the vista from this turnoff was incredible, so we snapped a few shots and drove on down the road to the Oconaluftee Valley Overlook, which was very cool because the setting sun was creating really interesting shadows on the valley. Another overlook had a sign about logging in the Smokies; by the time the park was formed in the 1930s, logging companies had cut down 80% of the trees in the area that is now the park. Thank goodness the states of Tennessee and North Carolina, along with the federal government and private individuals around the country (including children donating pennies!), banded together to buy up all the land parcels to create a national park.  How cool is that?

Two views from the Newfound Gap Overlook,
showing either side of the ridge

Our next stop ties in with the previous one because it was Newfound Gap Overlook, which contains a plaque honoring those who helped establish the park, including John D. Rockefeller Jr., who donated $5 million of the $12 million needed to create the park in memory of his mother, Laura Spellman Rockefeller. There was a beautiful overlook, as well as a raised area where the park was dedicated by Franklin Roosevelt in 1940. In addition, the Appalachian Trail comes through the area, and Shaun really wanted to get a picture of herself on that trail.  Not that she’d ever hike on it since it’s very strenuous, but she just wanted to say she’d been on the trail.  Of course, she also had to have pictorial proof of it, so here you go.

The closest Shaun will get to hiking the Appalachian Trail

The Appalachian Trail. Um....no.

Our next stop was an unintended one, but you know there’s something going on when a bunch of people are stopped on the side of the road.  It depends on which park you’re in as to what to expect, but in the Smokies, it’s most likely a bear, and indeed, it was.  We parked on the side of the road, jumped out with cameras in hand, and proceeded to where a bear was walking away from us down a ravine.  We didn’t get too many great pics of her (or him as the case may be), so we headed back down the road, only to encounter another bear (or perhaps the same one) in a parking lot just down from where we’d seen the bear in the ravine. Shaun thought it was a different bear because there were still people pulled over back where we had just been, but it’s possible they just didn’t know that she’d moved on down the road. Anyway, we got a bunch of good pictures of her in the parking lot (what is it with us and parking lots?), so we saw 4 elk and 2 (maybe) bears in the same day. Booyaaahhh!

Our next stop was to see a formation that the Smokies are famous for known as Chimney Tops.  It’s part of a mountain that not only looks distinctive, but it was the source of the 2016 fire that devastated Gatlinburg. Apparently, some “juveniles” started the blaze, and the trail is still not completely rebuilt.  We didn’t go far down the trail, but we did find a cool bridge with humungous rocks under it, so it was worth the short hike (even on Shaun's boobooed knee). We also got to see the Chimney Tops from a couple of other pull offs down the road, so we definitely had our way with them.

We finally made it back to the cabin at around 9:00 p.m., made dinner, and then sat down to write this blog.  It’s 12:42 now, so we’ve about had it for the night. Tomorrow we’ve decided to give our bodies a rest and make it a driving day. We’ll be heading back to the southern border and then travel around the western side of the park to see the Fontana Dam, the Okunaluftee Visitor’s Center we missed today, and a few other places including the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Some other pretty shots from the overlooks: