Twenty or so years ago, I was visiting my grandmother in Kentucky. On the way home, I decided to take a right turn instead of the left (that I knew was suppose to take me home) and drove until I caught my first glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean in Charleston, South Carolina. That trip was my initiation to a one of my greatest passions: travel. On that trip, I right through the middle of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, but didn't take time to really enjoy the park. Every since my wife and I have been together, I have been intending to take advantage of the fact that her family lives only an hour or so from the park to really spend some quality time there.
As we were spending Christmas with my wife's family, I decided to renew my interest in the park and while I still didn't get to do the hiking I wanted to due to time constraints, an afternoon driving through the Smokies has wet my appetite. There is not much to tell of this trip, other than to share a couple of pictures.
I had hoped to hike to Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the park, but the road was closed due to snow and my time was short on this day trip. Next time though. As you can see from the pictures though, this park has a lot of contrast to offer to my normal hikes. The lushness of this deciduous forest is quite different than the alpine and desert terrains near my home in Reno, NV.
Patching together a few shots, I was able to illustrate the unique smokey feature that gives these mountains their name (originally named this by the Cherokee). Quite beautiful.
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