Dipping into the Smokies

Thursday, June 13th

Today, we were slow to get going. Tony made French toast on his new griddle, and it was terrific! And much easier to clean up!

We dawdled around the Mammoth, trying to decide what we had energy to do. We had grand ideas, but nothing to get them into action. I did a little work, and finally we decided to head out to a late lunch at Golden Corral. We were hungry, but wanted choices and instant food, so this worked out well.

After lunch, we decided to head towards the Smoky Mountain National Park. to get to there, you must drive through Gatlinburg. Gatlinburg looks to be a very touristy mountain town, and reminded us a little of Hill City or Ruidoso, with lots of quaint and unique shops along a main drag. We opted to go ahead an drive out to the visitor center at SMNP, and see what we could learn.

Entrance to the park

The scenery immediately became a thick dark forest of hardwood trees just outside of Gatlinburg, and it was almost completely covering the road with canopy. It was amazing! We stopped at the Visitor Center, and walked through the nature exhibit, showing the different plants and animals that inhabit the  park. We also saw a short 20 minute overview and history video, while a brief, heavy shower kept us inside the visitor center. We also looked around the park store for souvenirs, as we always do.

After it stopped raining, we headed back. Tony had also put on a roast to cook in the crock-pot this morning, so that is what we had for dinner. We chilled watching a Ken Burn's National Parks episode while I did some work and worked on catching up the blog.