Great Smoky Mountain National Park

The Reason We Travel so Far is to Experience the Wonder

The carful of kids is located on the northern edge of the most visited national park in the eastern United States but the Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg area is too congested for us.  I had an idea that it would be before we left, so I made reservations at the Best Western in Maggie Valley, North Carolina for the rest of our stay in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  We hope to tour the northern side of the park today as we make our way south to North Carolina.  I make some waffles for the kids, grab a boiled egg for the Mom, throw a load of laundry in the wash and pack up the car.

When I am planning my road trips, I like to visit national parks.  They are inexpensive entertainment for the whole family.  For the price of a one day ticket to Disney, I get annual pass for the carful of us to visit some of the most majestic and historically significant landmarks in our country.  The carful of kids has been to Disneyland and SeaWorld and we had a great time but they are expensive.   For what I would spend on a long weekend with two days at an amusement park and eating out, I can get a week on the road seeing something new at every bend.  It is more work for me and I have to remind my husband that I am not on vacation--the kids are.  I am still taking care of the kids and making sure that they are safe, fed and clean most of the time, except I am doing it on the road without the ease of my own house.  But I do find it liberating because I can let go of the annoying stuff that dominates my world.  I don't have to battle with the kids to pick up their toys.  I left the messy rooms at home.  The bathrooms and kitchen don't have to be cleaned.  We spend the whole day outside exploring new things and most nights we have a swim before bed.  When we are on the road, the carful of kids eat better because they are busier.  They argue less because they are not bored.  When I have them in the car, they play road games and look out the windows.  This year we added an iPod touch and iPod nano and  my husband put some downloadable books and Kidz Bop on them.  My middle son can belt out some tunes, its cute when I have to tell him to keep it down in the back seat.   They are entertained by the added technology, but we have road tripped without it.

I use the NPS.Gov website and check out each individual park before I leave on our trips.  Under the tab Explore This Park, there is tons of useful information.  Under the Plan Your Visit tab, you will find directions, the hours of the park during different parts of the year, fees and if you need any reservations.   You will also find the Things To Do tab with topics ranging from auto touring to fishing and from waterfalls to camping and everything in between.   The Things To Know Before You Come has great information ranging from the weather and your traveling pets to traffic tips and services inside the park.

Noah Ogle Place

The Great Smoky Mountain National Park does not sell a lot food inside the park, I learned this from the Goods and Services tab.  Knowing that, I find a grocery store and load up for lunch.  I have a lot of snacks for the kids but I am running low on bread, chips and lunchmeat.   After the stop at the grocery store on the edge of GSMNP (Great Smoky Mountain National Park), we enter the park.

At the Sugarlands Visitors Center--our first stop, we pick up our Junior Ranger booklets for the kids and Mom stamps her National Park Passport.  We decide to drive the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail on the North side of the park.  I find it a little hard to find at first  because it is not well marked on the street signs.  It is a lovely one-way drive through the woods.  We pass by several early log homes.  I am always more thankful for my home after seeing what pioneers had to endure.  I can just imagine raising a family in a house that gaps in the walls and the floors.  The carful of kids run around in a dizzying blur.  We decide to have some lunch and look at our booklets.  Mom makes the sandwiches while we look around to see what we can find on our forest bingo page.  I know what you are thinking, that sounds like work.  It is not really.  The kids like earning the little plastic badges.  It makes the national park experience more rewarding.  This park requires you to pick up a bag of trash for each child.  I hand over the grocery sacks from earlier and the kids start picking up the wrappers from juice boxes on the ground.  There are an alarming amount of them everywhere they go.   I try to engage them in a conversation on pioneer life but they are just running around and not listening to Mom.  Oh well, they seem happy and they are not bothering anybody or destroying any property.  Let them be, Melissa and I talk about pioneer life instead.   We walk away from the pioneer farm thankful for our modern medicine and grocery stores.

After lunch and our walk around the Noah Ogle Place, we climb back into the 4Runner and head for Bales Place and Roaring Fork Creek.  The carful of kids run around this old settlement this time picking up trash.  We continue on the rest of the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail until it dumps us back in Gatlinburg.  It seems the traffic has improved but I still have to watch for the hoards of pedestrians walking aimlessly.

"Hey, Melissa...Do you think that some of these people never even visit the park?"  I ponder.

"Yea, it wouldn't surprise me if they didn't even know there is a National Park right over there." she replies pointing.

We continue heading south on Newfound Gap Road heading towards Cherokee, North Carolina, on the southern edge on the park.  This gives us a great opportunity to check things out for tomorrow.  The heat wave has ended but now we have to deal with scattered thunderstorms with little or no warning.  I found out that it does rain quite a bit in the mountains so we decided not to camp this year.  Last year's road trip to Colorado we spent six nights in cabins and yurts.  I love to cabin camp but this National Park does not have cabins in the park beside the LeConte Lodge that you have hike over five miles to get to.  Yes, can you imagine taking three children on a five mile hike with packs?  I have hiked two miles with the kids where  they only had to carry water.  I ended up with one 40-pound kid on my back for the second mile.  Way to Go Mom!   We pull the car over at the Newfound Gap at an elevation of 5046 Ft,  this is where the Appalachian Trail crosses the main road in GSMNP.  The carful of kids bolt out of the car as soon as I put it in park.  My middle son thinks he is headed to Maine right now.

Along the Appalachian Trial

"Buddy, it will take you months to get there.  What are you going to eat and drink?  What about school?"  I ask trying not to crush his dreams.

"Berries and stuff, maybe I can catch a rabbit.  You were talking about going to Maine next summer. You can pick me up,"  my middle son replies.

My boy has a plan.  He is my different thinker.  But this is the same boy who couldn't eat the fish he caught a couple of years ago.  But he did spend the week at a Y resident camp right before vacation.  Maybe he is ready to hike close to 2,000 miles instead of third grade with his cozy family in his cozy house.    

"Mom will get in trouble if she lets you loose like that.  Maybe you and Dad could try it out in a couple of years,"  I know I did the Mom Dodge, but he seems to be satisfied.

After hiking up the trail headed towards Maine for half an hour, we turn around.  We are thirsty and the water bottles are in the SUV.  I have to give the hikers that do the whole trail a lot of respect and admiration.  We load the carful of kids back in the SUV and head to our room in Maggie Valley, North Carolina.  But first we take the picture straddling the state lines.

On our way, we see the Blue Ridge Parkway.  It is a All-American Road that runs for 469 miles from GSMNP to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.  It was started in 1935 as a part of the New Deal.  The parkway was not completed until 1983.  We turn the carful of kids onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, maybe we will find a visitors center.  Sure enough we see the sign for the Waterrock Knob Visitor Center just a little pass our turn off for Highway 19 into Maggie Valley.  We get there just in time before they close for the day.  This happens alot to the carful of kids.  We run into the Visitors Center, get the kids their Junior Ranger booklets and a stamp on my National Park Passport.  For those of you that do not visit national parks regularly, it is a stamp that has the date and national park you visited.  You put them in a tiny blue book as a record of your stay.   We learn that we need to take a hike on the Blue Ridge Parkway, complete a couple of worksheets about the parkway and visit another Visitors Center to earn our Junior Ranger Badge.  Sounds Great.  We plan on visiting Asheville, North Carolina in a few days so we can take the scenic route and complete the rest of the badge.  We load up the carful of kids and head to the hotel.  It is threatening rain so we can't take a hike right now.

We head into Maggie Valley, North Carolina and  try to find a family friendly restaurant.  The carful of kids will die soon if we don't eat.  We drive down the main drag of town and find Maggie Valley Restaurant.  It advertises itself as a family eatery since 1952.  We pull in and give it a try.  One of the kids has Macaroni and Cheese.  Looks good, I grab a taste--tastes good too.  My chicken eaters order chicken fingers.  I try the Cousin Maggie's Pulled Pork Bar-B-Que with red mashed potatoes.   North Carolina Pulled Pork BBQ starts with pork butt roast or whole shoulder that is slow smoked until the meat is so tender it falls off the bone and can be shredded.  The BBQ is very tender but I should have gotten it on a bun.  The carful of kids finish eating and decide on a Mountain Blackberry Cobbler a la mode.  It is unbelievable, tart yet sweet.  The crust is tender yet keeps it texture in the saucy cobbler juice.  We order one and share it--there is plenty to go around.   After a satisfying dinner, we head to our hotel, Best Western Mountainbrook Inn.  We find quiet hotel with a friendly staff.  The rooms are clean and every room has a pair of rocking chairs in front of it.  We find the Maggie Valley area much more quiet than the northern side of the park.  I like it, we can enjoy the natural beauty of the area.  The kids change into their bathing suits as I unload the car and Melissa makes up some cocktails for us to enjoy by the pool.   Another satisfying day on the road.