A Day in the Smokies of TN.

June 26 – Saturday – We spent the day touring Smoky Mountain National Park. On the way to the park we passed through Gatlinburg, TN. At one time, this was probably a nice little sleepy mountain community, but is now wall-to-wall tourists and unbelievable traffic jams. Both side of the main street are lined with shops and attractions. To non-shoppers it was suffocating just driving through.

We were surprised in the national park when comparing it to the parks we are accustom to in the west. The Smoky Mountain National Park is actually the most visited park in the entire nation, more so than Yellowstone. The land was mostly privately owned land so the government had to come up with the money to buy it, with the help of citizens wanting to save their beloved Smokies for future generations. It was weird to see many meadows fenced, but it was fun to visit a primitive school house and several old churches, a grist mill, and several retained homes of former settlers. We also came across the Wild Turkey. Not as big as the Safeway Turkeys!