Elkmont and Daisytown Ghost Towns (Great Smokey Mountains National Park, Tennessee)

It's about 5pm and with the sun setting behind the mountainside above me, I'm debating on sleeping in my car, rather than putting my tent up at the campsite I reserved. I brought a tent, but I also prepared to sleep in the car due to the high potential for rain overnight. Not that I mind camping in the rain, but as I want to get an early start tomorrow, I thought it might be just as well to save myself from having to break camp. After all, I bought this Subaru Outback because I could fully stretch out in it when I put the seats down. I decide sleep in the car. 

Since I don't have a lot of time, I quickly walk through the campground and across the main road to hike the short Elkmont Nature Trail. I had seen images of old houses and from the research I did, it seems they may be in this area. The hike is very short and does a loop around small stream, but offers no sight of any structures. I did see a couple of large turkeys though grazing in the area between the campground and the road. 

Debating on what to do next, I head to the other side of the river across a sturdy bridge and discover another parking area and trailhead here. Walking up the trail a short distance, I see some kind of stone ruins, but more like an entry gate to an estate than anything else. I'm not convinced that is the right way either. Doubling back, I head up the paved road and wander into the restored homes of the 1930's resort community of Daisy Town. This was a destination that brought the attention of the affluent crowd to the park. I'm unsure of when it was abandoned, but the National Park service has done a marvelous job of restoring the houses on at least one street of that community. I wander about a bit, but don't delay too long as it's getting dark. 

As I start to make my way back to camp, I catch site of what appears to be an old chimney up another hill and climb up to check it out. Once atop the hill, I can see that there are actually the ruins of at least 4-5 houses up here. These appear to be older than those at Daisytown, which just a bit more than a hundred yards away. I'm unsure of whether this was part of the town or perhaps part of the older town of Elkmont. After exploring just a bit more, I head back to camp to make some dinner. 

It did end up raining through the night and it continued well after I awoke. Not having to pack up the tent and other gear made hitting the road much faster. Though I had wanted to do another hike today, I decided against it with the rain seemingly all that was on the agenda for the day. When I eventually got home, I did a little further research about Elkmont and Daisytown, but still came to no firm conclusions. I'm convinced there is more to Elkmont than what I found, but it's exact location remains something of a mystery to me.