The Appalachian Trail runs through the Park along the Tennessee and North Carolina border. We stopped at a parking lot at Newfound Gap where the views of the mountains were gorgeous. This parking lot is a drop-off and pick-up point for hikers of the Appalachian Trail which runs from the state of Georgia to the state of Maine. The two guys in the picture below were starting their hike on the Trail from this point and hiking 1,972 miles all the way to Maine; they anticipate it will take them about 170 days to reach their destination.
Our next stop was Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the Park at an elevation of 6,664 feet. We hiked up-hill about 1/2 mile to the observation tower and could see for miles and miles. the cold wind was blowing something fierce up there and I literally had to hang on to my hat.
At Cherokee, NC we ate our picnic lunch at a park and made a visit to the Museum Of The Cherokee Indian. We then drove east and got on the Blue Ridge Parkway heading north. The Parkway is a scenic drive through the mountains. The curves on this paved road are perfectly banked and are a popular drive for motorcyclists. We had to exit the Parkway at Soco Gap because a rock slide had closed the road ahead. I took over the driving while Jim navigated us back to Pigeon Forge on some narrow , winding, backwoods roads that had one hairpin curve after the other, and no guardrails on the sheer drop down the side of the mountain. It was a white knuckle drive and the skin on the palms of my hands was nearly worn off from turning the steering wheel back and forth around the hairpin curves.
We arrived back to our campsite about 6:00 that evening, had something to eat, and left for the Comedy Barn Theater. It was a knee slapping, hand clapping, good time with a country themed variety show of singing, joke telling, skits, and dogs performing tricks.
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