Since Laurie connected with Carol and her
horses, we decided to drive on over to Pigeon Forge, have lunch and go shopping
at Stages West… After all, what self-respecting cowgirl doesn’t need a decent
pair of boots? Stages West has a huge
selection and I thought that their prices were very reasonable. Check this store out at http://www.stageswest.com/.
After Stages West, we were off to the
Tanger outlet mall in Sevierville where we picked up a couple of pair of jeans for her at the Levi Outlet Store. Lunch and shopping completed, we decided it
was time for a drive through part of the Smoky Mountains National Park…
This is a view of Gatlinburg Tennessee
from a roadside viewpoint on the National Park bypass around the town. We’d never taken the bypass before. Not only does one avoid the Gatlinburg tourist
traffic by taking this route, the scenery is great too!
Gatlinburg is the smallest of the 3
tourist related towns that stretch along US Hwy. 441 in Sevier County
Tennessee. As you can see the town is also the closest to the Park itself…actually
nestling up against its borders.
The other towns along US Hwy. 441 are
Pigeon Forge and Sevierville.
Sevierville is the county seat.
Sevier County is the 3rd fastest growing county in Tennessee…recording
a 26.3% population growth between 2000 and 2010. Dollywood and Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies
are 2 of the premier attractions along Route 441, drawing 2.2 and 2.0 million
visitors per year!
We stopped to take a photo of these
turkeys foraging beside the bypass… It wasn’t that many years ago that it was
rare to see wild turkeys but now they seem to be everywhere. The range and numbers of the wild turkey had
decreased at the beginning of the 20th century due to hunting and loss of
habitat. Game managers estimate that the
entire population of wild turkeys in the United States was as low as 30,000 in
the early 20th century.
Then Wildlife Officials initiated efforts
to protect and encourage the breeding of the surviving wild population. Trapped birds were relocated to new areas and,
as wild turkey numbers rebounded, hunting was legalized in 49 U.S. states
(excluding Alaska). Current estimates
place the wild turkey population at 7 million individuals…which is approaching
2 turkeys per square mile in the USA!
This photo was taken along Little River Road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There were some slippery spots along the
road in the foothills of the Smokies as we started our drive. Recent snow and cold weather gave us a
different perspective than we would normally have. With less foliage, many details of the
terrain and forest were noted that we hadn’t seen previously…
Little River drains a 380-square-mile area
containing some of the most spectacular scenery in the southeastern United
States. The first 18 miles of the river
are all located within the borders of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The remaining 33 miles (53 km) flow out of the
mountains at Townsend Tennessee and through Blount County to join the Tennessee
River. Trout fishing and tubing are very
popular on the river. To learn more, go
to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_River_(Tennessee).
All along our route there were seeps…water
seeping from the limestone rocks…that had frozen in spectacular style!
After leaving Little River Road, we took
the Laurel Creek Road up into the mountains toward Cades Cove, one of the most
famous sections of the park.
More about the park itself… Great Smoky
Mountains National Park is both a National Park and a UNESCO World Heritage
Site. It sits astride the ridgeline of
the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are in turn a
division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. The border between Tennessee
and North Carolina runs northeast to southwest through the centerline of the
park. On its route from Maine to
Georgia, the Appalachian Trail passes through the center of the park. The park
was chartered by the United States Congress in 1934 and it was officially
dedicated in 1940. The park encompasses
522,419 acres or a little over 816 square miles.
Incidentally, there are 21 UNESCO World
Heritage Sites either shared or totally within the boundaries of the United
States. How many have you visited? I’ve been to 11 of them and Laurie has been
to 12… We’ve been to 2 others in Canada, 3 in Australia, 2 in Great Britain and
1 in New Zealand. To learn more about
America’s World Heritage Sites, you can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_Heritage_Sites_in_the_United_States.
Herds of Whitetail Deer were feeding in
the meadows throughout Cades Cove.
Given all of the deer we see, it’s hard
to believe that by the early 20th century, commercial exploitation, wide-open hunting
and poor land-use practices such as deforestation had severely depressed deer
populations in much of their range. For
example, by about 1930, the entire U.S. deer population was thought to number
about 300,000!
After an outcry by
hunters and other conservationists, commercial exploitation of deer became
illegal and conservation programs with regulated hunting were introduced. In 2005, estimates put the deer population in
the United States at around 30 million! Conservation
practices have proved so successful that, in parts of their range, the
white-tailed deer populations currently far exceed their carrying capacity and many
people consider them to be a nuisance. (Not us! Yesterday, much to our delight, 6 of them
bounded through our backyard…)
As we drove along the loop road in Cades
Cove, this handsome young buck was prepared to cross the road in front of us.
The Whitetail Deer is the state animal of
Arkansas, Illinois, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. It’s
also the wildlife symbol of Wisconsin and the game animal of Oklahoma. The
profile of a white-tailed deer buck caps the coat of arms of Vermont, can be
seen in the flag of Vermont as well as in stained glass at the Vermont State
House.
Cades Cove is an isolated valley located
in the Tennessee section of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, USA. It is the single most popular destination for
visitors to the park. More than 2 million
visitors a year are attracted to the valley because of its well preserved
homesteads, scenic mountain views, and an abundant display of wildlife. The Cades Cove Historic District is listed on
the National Register of Historic Places.
This is a view along the loop road in
Cades Cove. The road is a one-way, 11 mile
paved loop. It draws thousands of
visitors daily during the tourist season.
The cove draws attention for numerous black bear sightings. In season,
the drive may take more than 4 hours to complete and view the various
sites. Many visitors just stop in the
middle of the road to take photos of the first deer they see…and when in season, bear sightings cause traffic jams that are a bit mind boggling!
The good news was that there was very little traffic during our
mid-winter drive!
There are many well preserved homesteads
and other early structures throughout Cades Cove. This is the Henry Whitehead Cabin. It was constructed between 1895 and 1896. It
was built by Matilda "Aunt Tildy" Shields and her second husband,
Henry Whitehead. FYI…Shields' sons from
her first marriage, were prominent figures in the cove's moonshine trade.
Here’s another view of the valley… Even
in the winter, it’s a beautiful place.
An additional advantage of a winter drive in the Cove is just how
peaceful it is!
There is a ‘dark side’ to Cades Cove
however… What happened to all the people who used to live here? Of all the Smoky Mountain communities, Cades
Cove put up the most resistance to the formation of the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park. Cove residents had initially
been assured their land would not be incorporated into the park, and they
actually welcomed its formation.
However, by 1927, the winds had changed.
When the Tennessee General Assembly passed a bill approving money to buy
land for the national park, it gave the Park Commission the power to seize
properties within the proposed park boundaries by eminent domain. Needless to say, long-time residents of Cades
Cove were outraged.
Laurie took this photo of an abandoned
old road in the cove that intersects with the parks loop tour road.
Despite resistance, threats and lawsuits,
the residents of Cades Cove were eventually forced off their land. The last holdout finally abandoned his
property on Christmas Day in 1937.
However, in defiance of the Park Service, the Primitive Baptist Church
congregation continued to meet in Cades Cove until the 1960s.
This is the last home on the loop drive
through Cades Cove. It’s the rustic Carter
Shields Cabin which was built in the 1880s.
There are 11 structures or groups of structures along the drive,
including 3 churches.
For about 100 years before the National
Park was created, farming and logging was the mainstay in the valley. This led to massive deforestation. Initially the National Park Service planned
to let the cove return to its natural forested state. However it ultimately gave in to requests by
the Great Smoky Mountain Conservation Association to maintain Cades Cove as a
meadow. On the advice of cultural
experts, the Park Service demolished the more modern structures, leaving only
the primitive cabins and barns which were considered most representative of
pioneer life in early Appalachia.
Just click on any of the photos to enlarge
them…
Thanks for joining us on our scenic
winter drive in the Smokies!
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
