Great Smokey Mountains National Park (Great Smokey Mountains National Park, Tennessee and North Carolina)

Of all of the parks in the national park system, Great Smokey Mountains National Park is the most visited. Likely due to it's location in the eastern United States, many millions of visitors find adventure in the park every year. 

I've visited the park twice in the past. The first time, I merely drove through on my way from St. Louis to Charleston. That was a crazy spur of the moment decision when I was only about twenty two years old. I had been visiting my grandmother in Kentucky, and upon hitting a crossroad on my way home, realized that I didn't have to work for another couple of days and that I had never seen the ocean. Fourteen hours later, I found myself on the South Carolina coast. The second time was while visiting my wife's family in North Carolina for the holidays. Unfortunately, many services in the park were closed due to it being the middle of winter and I didn't get to explore much.

Now that we're living in Atlanta, a drive to the park is only a couple of hours. Several months ago, I made a camping reservation for this weekend to spend some time exploring our closest large national park. 

My plan is to car camp at Smokemont Campground just inside the park coming from the North Carolina side and do several hikes while visiting. I'll write those hikes up individually, but I wanted to take a little space to share some pictures of my visit to the park. 

The views are gorgeous and vast. While the mountains are not as tall as the Sierra Nevada that I lived among for so long, they make up for it in greenery. From the summits and overlooks, one can see dozens of miles of green undulating mountains in every direction. The occasional cloud parks itself in the valleys and gives the appearance of smoke, for which this place is named.

After getting in a couple of hikes, I headed to my campsite and got my tent and sleeping arrangements set up for the night. It's humid here and the taste of a nice cold beer is music to my lips. Before turning in for the night though, I decide to wander a little trail heading out of the end of the campground. This trail follows the Bradley Fork of the Oconaluftee River for some distance. I only walk two or three miles on the trail, paying more attention to the flowing waters than to the mile markers. It's a pleasant way to end the evening and before too long, I return to my tent for a good night's rest. Tomorrow - the biggest hike of the trip!