Easter in the Smokys

There is one nice thing about going to motor home shows. There are tons of resort representatives giving away coupons for free camping, usually to try to entice you to buy one of their overpriced deeded RV lots. What else would bring us to the Gatlinburg area on a holiday weekend? While at the shows in Florida, we met folks from Hidden Mountain Resort in Sevierville TN. They had just opened a new deeded RV community, The Dell, and offered us two free nights camping if we came by. It was basically on our way to the Buffalo River in Arkansas, so we thought we would check it out. It turns out to be pretty nice, although very pricey: the 18 lots run from $165K-$195K. Maybe next year.

We arrived on Saturday and did practically nothing all day, except that we did drive over to the Coleman Factory Outlet and the Great Smoky Mountain Knife Works, the "Worlds Largest Knife Store". On Easter Sunday morning we drove into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We drove through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg (although we could have taken the by-pass around Gatlinburg) and traffic was amazingly light. I guess all the tourists were attending Easter church services. This area is very fascinating in a bizarre way. It is so gaudy and tacky that it is kinda neat. A nice place to pass through, but I wouldn't want to stop here. As soon as you enter the national park, it is like suddenly passing through a portal into a wholly different world: green, quiet and serene. It is ironic that this chaotic tourist mecca was created for people who come to visit the GSMNP, a totally opposite experience.

Shortly after entering the park on the Newfound Gap Road, traffic came to a halt and cars were parked in the road and on the shoulders. There we saw two black bears, a mother and cub off in the woods. After clearing the "bear jam" we drove up to Newfound Gap and to Clingman's Dome. On Clingman's Dome there were remnants of the snow that fell earlier in the week, and Matilda had her first experience playing in the snow. The views from Clingman's dome were clearer than I can recall ever seeing them before. Visibility was probably close to 100 miles. After leaving Clingman's Dome we retraced our path back down the mountain and turned towards Cade's Cove. But the day was getting late and rather than going out to Cade's Cove, we left the park at Townsend and returned to Pigeon Forge via US 321. It was a pretty nice windshield tour of America's most visited national park.