Cindy and I had hoped to head back to Mortimer Campground early this week, but the rain forced us to change our plans. The campground closes October 31 and the weather wasn't supposed to clear until today. We thought we wanted more time than that, so we made reservations at the Elkmont Campground in the Smokies. From the pictures we were seeing on Facebook, the leaf colors still looked good.
We decided on a half blah half scenic drive which took us I-26 to I-40, then west to the 276/19 exit. Maggie Valley has some really nice maple trees and some of them were at full peak and beautiful. As we headed up towards the Parkway, we ran into some rain and fog. The colors also dulled as we got to the higher elevations. It's a short drive down to the Oconaluftee area of the Smokies, and the leaf color really picked up as we dropped in elevation. Once we got to the visitor center, the color faded, but this is mainly due to the area having a lot of sycamore trees which don't have colorful fall color. They tend to just turn brown and fall off - and many of them already had. The leaf color did pick up once again as we headed towards Newfound Gap on US441. The mid elevations had a lot of peak color. We almost stopped a couple of times, but pressed on instead. The leaves were gone at the highest elevations - as expected - but the color really picked up once again as we got to the mid elevations. It was still raining a bit, but we couldn't stand it any more and had to stop several times for shots.
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| along US441 |
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| one of the tunnels on US441 |
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| looking up at Chimney Tops from an overlook |
Unfortunately, traffic also picked up and it was tough getting a shot without a vehicle or people in it. Instead of heading right to the campground, we made the
Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail our next stop. We didn't plan to do any hiking, but were hoping to catch some of the historic buildings surrounded by fall color. A lot of other people had the same idea, but limited parking keeps the crowds at the individual stops down. Still, it's tough trying to get a shot with no one in it. Some people are polite and will wait until you snap a couple, but others are just rude and don't care. Here are a few from today, but
I also have a gallery here with these and other historic buildings in the park that I've taken over the years.
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| Bud Ogle Farm |
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| Bud Ogle Farm |
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| Bud Ogle Farm |
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| Jim Bales Place |
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| Jim Bales Place |
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| Jim Bales Place |
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| Alfred Reagan Cabin |
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| Alfred Reagan Tub Mill |
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| Alfred Reagan Tub Mill |
It was about mid afternoon by the time we got through the loop, so we headed back through Gatlinburg and on to the campground. We had a pretty nice site reserved in the campground - L2. The sites we really wanted were already taken, but we had circled this one on the campground map on a previous trip. After setting up camp, Cindy heated up one of the yummy meals she had prepared before we left. We still had a couple of hours of daylight left after eating, so we drove over to the Little River Trail which is in the campground area and spent the rest of the day there. The color was decent along the river, but it was tough finding spots with good color and no clutter or downed trees in the way.
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| along the Little River Trail |
Once back at the campsite, I got a campfire going and we settled in for a quiet evening. Night time temps dipped into the mid 30's and we got to try out our new double sleeping bag which kept us very toasty!
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