Road Trip USA: day fifteen
finally, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. we stopped at the Sugarlands Visitor Center (park headquarters, near Gatlinburg, TN) on our way into the mountains from the Tennessee side to pick up some trail maps and browse the gift shop for postcards and whatnot. then it was off to view the popular Laurel Falls (not actually that interesting), a short 2.6 mile (4.2 km) hike on a paved trail, followed by some cruising around the curving and intimate park roads alongside stony, rushing rivers and through shaded swathes of forest. later we made our way up the ridges and across the Tennesse/North Carolina state line in this part of the southern Appalachians to visit (and ascend, as the half-mile trail is rather vertical) Clingmans Dome, where an observation tower offers sweeping panoramas of the surrounding mountains. the day, although it had started out fairly sunny, was a bit overcast by this time, but the ancient and forest-covered Smokies maintained their trademark bluish haze throughout. as i recall, we visited another cascade at some point in the afternoon, and lunched or simply sat for a while on large, mossy stones lining a riverbank, but before long our time in the park was running out.
we exited on the North Carolina side and continued on toward Asheville, a readily likable college town where we would spend the night before embarking north on the next adventure. now firmly seated in the eastern half of our continent-spanning road trip, we would be sure to make the most of the mountains (and time) left to us...
a Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia) alights on a rock.
along the trail to Laurel Falls, and looking down the lower portion of the cascades themselves.
difficult to see, but those are the falls behind us (kind of dry this time of year).
a friend along the way.
a different friend hiding on the forest floor, the Shield-backed katydid (Atlanticus americanus).
the view from Clingmans Dome.
an overview of landmarks visible from Clingmans Dome.
the Eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), and an undetermined variety of skipper.
we crossed the Appalachian Trail a few times at Clingmans Dome.
...and then this happened.
pokeweed!
we exited on the North Carolina side and continued on toward Asheville, a readily likable college town where we would spend the night before embarking north on the next adventure. now firmly seated in the eastern half of our continent-spanning road trip, we would be sure to make the most of the mountains (and time) left to us...
a Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia) alights on a rock.
along the trail to Laurel Falls, and looking down the lower portion of the cascades themselves.
difficult to see, but those are the falls behind us (kind of dry this time of year).
a friend along the way.
a different friend hiding on the forest floor, the Shield-backed katydid (Atlanticus americanus).
the view from Clingmans Dome.
an overview of landmarks visible from Clingmans Dome.
the Eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), and an undetermined variety of skipper.
we crossed the Appalachian Trail a few times at Clingmans Dome.
...and then this happened.
pokeweed!