Great Smoky Mountains

3-17-21

We arrived at the Gatlinburg KOA on Saturday. Our GPS took us the back way to the RV Park. It was a narrow and winding road with single lane bridges and no shoulder. Diane was very nervous. When we got to the park the attendant said that several others ended up on the same route and one guy was almost run off the road. 

We are about 20 miles from Gatlinburg and made the drive into town on Sunday. Big Mistake! It was traffic backed up for blocks. There is one main traffic light in the middle of town and it took forever to make your way through. Then you had to come back and do it all over again. 

There was no shortage of people in town as both sides of the street were wall to wall people. Maybe 30 percent wearing masks. We did not stop and decided to come back Tuesday hoping it would be less crowded. 

On Monday we decided to take a drive looking for back roads into the mountains. We found it, Halls Top Road. This dirt single lane road weaved it way up and down the mountain. One spot was washed out and narrow that even made me think about backing up. But I ventured on :) 


We followed these roads for some time before thinking we are never going to get out of the mountains. We did end up using the GPS to find our way out and get back to the campground. We spent 2 hours weaving back and forth on these dirt roads. 


Spotted this out in the middle of nowhere.


We also stopped at a local wood butcher who had some great looking carvings. 

Wood Butcher was hard at work carving a little bear.

We thought this one would be good for several people, but we were not going to spend $400.

We also spotted this old building on our drive through the Smoky Mountains.

The craftsmanship on these old building is always something to see.




Underneath these vines are cars and trucks. It was not unusual to find abundant vehicles along the dirt roads in the Smoky Mountains. Seems you can just park it and walk away. It will stay there until someone needs parts. Nobody throws away anything around here, just park it in the yard or nearby woods in case you may need it later.   


Location: Indian Ocean

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