Cade's Cove and The Great Smoky Mountains National Park

We read that the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was the most visited national park in the United States. After visiting places with crowds like the Grand Canyon, Zion, and Bryce national parks, it is hard for us to wrap our minds around bigger crowds. But the Great Smoky park hosted ten million visitors last year--twice as many as the #2 visited Grand Canyon with only five million. So now that we are living just ten miles away, it is time to go explore the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Our first stop had to be Cade's Cove because it has been recommended many times from fellow travelers. At the time we didn't even know what Cade's Cove was. Now we know that a cove in the Smoky Mountains is a relatively flat valley between mountains.

Today we found out that Cade's Cove was an isolated community in the 1800's in a valley. Now it is a popular drive in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It's a rare spot in which both wild nature and human history can be enjoyed at the same time. We also found that the one-way loop drive around Cade's Cove is open only to walkers and bicyclers on Wednesday and Saturday mornings from dawn until 10 a.m. So we made the one-hour drive to this beautiful valley on Wednesday morning.

In order to make the drive here, and to have plenty of time to ride the loop before the cars arrived, we had to set the alarm early this morning. We were up at 5 a.m., on the road before 6 a.m., and on our bikes to watch the valley awaken before 7 a.m. It rained on the drive over the mountains, so everything felt rain-fresh this morning.

We had talked to recent visitors to Cade's Cove, who described their visit in their car as a bumper-to-bumper drive that often came to a complete stop for up to 45 minutes at a time. By the time traffic finally began moving again, the wildlife that had caused the traffic jam was gone. So visiting this beautiful valley during peak vacation season certainly can have its frustrations. That's why we thought that bicycling the loop was such a wonderful opportunity. Sure enough, we were greeted to Cade's Cove by a group of white tail deer in the meadow.

These bucks were enjoying a morning breakfast of greens as we watched them. They seem to be used to crowds visiting their home.

Not far down the road we stopped where a ranger was pointing towards this open valley filled with low lying clouds.

On our own, we would have never seen the bear, enjoying the ripening blackberries only 50 yards from us. But the ranger knew that the bears were usually seen in this giant berry patch this time of the day. Later in the year they will move to the wild cherries, and then fatten up on acorns this fall before they hibernate.

They are hoping for continued moisture and a good berry and nut harvest for the bears this year. Last year's drought meant that many of the park's bears starved. 

Many years ago this isolated valley was home to numerous settlers before it became a national park. Starting with only a handful of pioneers in 1821, thirty years later there were 132 families living here. Several of their cabins are left standing along the Cade's Cove loop road.

There are over 80 historic buildings within the national park. This is a cantilever barn, which means they used balanced beams to support the overhanging upper floor. It has also been restored to the way it looked in the 1800's.

Among the buildings still standing at Cade's Cove are three different churches and their cemeteries.

We also enjoyed the wildflowers of Cade's Cove, framed by the tall clouds that indicated we would have more rain before the day was over.

But this was Denisa's favorite, the unique passion flower.

Since we are in the mountains, we weren't surprised to find that the loop road isn't exactly flat. Denisa had to walk her bike up several hills, while Mark managed to pedal all the way to the top of each incline. That would give him time to take pictures from the top of Denisa struggling to get up the hill.

It's while we are on the hillier back-side of the loop that we saw the storms approaching across the valley. We were very lucky to finish our loop without getting soaked. But we definitely feel that this bike ride is the best way to experience Cade's Cove. We feel like we have wandered His wonders on our bicycles today.

There are 800 miles of trails within the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. As if we hadn't seen enough waterfalls lately, we stopped by Meigs Waterfall, situated right along the park road.

The next waterfall would take more effort. A paved trail that slopes steadily up for 1.3 miles, the walk to Laurel Falls is the recommended trail for families and rushed visitors to the park that have time for just a single hike. So it is also the most crowded, with over 3,000 visitors each day to this trail during peak season. We would say that the week following the Fourth of July holiday is peak season! It took some great timing to take a picture without other people on the trail. As busy as this hike is, there was a ranger pointing out a bear that had climbed up a tree not far off that path.

It also took good luck and skillful cropping to get a picture at Laurel Falls without any of the 100 people that were there at the same time.

We've had a good time in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park today, and we'll be back later in the week for more hiking.