Smoky Mountain NP (Whittier–NC)

 

We left the Rally on Monday and traveled to a RV park in Whittier NC.  It is located in the foot hills of the Smoky’s. When we went to pay for the two nights we found that the credit card was declined.  After a long phone call to Capital One we found out that the card was frozen because of possible fraud.  There was no fraud that could be seen, but because of all of the out of state charges the card was frozen.  Now we had to get a new card.  That would take 2 to 3 business days.  So we were stuck at this camp site for the next 3 days.

As it turns out it was not that bad.  It rained all day Tuesday so we just stayed in and relaxed and went to Wally World (Wal-Mart).  We are becoming real Wal-Mart shoppers.  Wednesday we explored the Smoky Mountains.  What a beautiful National Park it is.

When you enter the park from the south via SR 441 you come across the Oconalauftee Visitor Center ant the Farm Museum.  The Farm Museum is a recreation of a farm that was in the area in the early 1800s.

We then drove to Clingmans Dome. We climbed to up the mountain to an elevation of 6,643ft.  OK, so we drove up.  As we drove the temp dropped to 34 degrees F.  It was a good thing we brought extra layers to put on.  The view from the top were spectacular.

The above pictures show the frost on all of the trees.

This is a slide show of the views from Clingmans Dome.

The following are just a few of the pictures from the parkway.

Some of the pictures above were taken by Ann.

Today we went to the Museum of the Cherokee Indians.  An excellent and well laid out depiction of the Cherokee people’s history.

 

Tomorrow we head for an RV park just north of Atlanta, GA to visit Ann’s nephew and his wife (Adam and Debra) and great-nephew, Ethan.

To be Continued ..