Great Smokey Mountain National Park

Finally made it to the Great Smokey Mountains and oh my goodness what a lovely day!  This is truly a beauty and we were so blessed with a nice day.  Drove up to entrance near Gatlinburg and over to the Newound Gap at Elev 5,046 ft.  Not like the Rockies or Sierra's but oh so pretty with trees budding and dogwood bursting with flowers along the way.  It was a nice leisurely ride.  All went well until we decided to go to "Cades Cove" for our picnic lunch and this being Easter.  You might say we were not original in our idea... there were so many people and cars on the road it was impossible to find a parking space at the picnic area so we went on and looked for a pull out which we found overlooking a lovely meadow.  Again, not original!  All was fine until we ended up behind someone who was completely selfish and drove at 5mph!! for about 7 of the 11 miles... It was inconsiderate to say the least; not that you want to travel at 50 but we had a line of cars as far as the eye could see in front and behind and only one way out so... anyway, loved the ride and it was fun seeing the Applalachian Trail and the marker of the State line of where Tennessee and North Carolina meet. What a kick.  Of course we love all the National Parks and highly recommend to all.

Interesting note here we learned that again Dolly Parton made a cd back in 2009 of some of the old mountain songs and all the proceeds go to the National Park.  That woman just keeps on giving around here!  kudos for Dolly!

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