The next journey from our private spot near Waynesville NC is for a train ride. The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad runs out of Bryson City about a 40 minute drive to the west. We had seen some advertisements about the train ride and checked out several YouTube videos to get a sense of what to expect. They offer a two different routes: the Nantahala Gorge Excursion & the Tuckasegee River Excursion. The first one is about 44 miles round trip and heads generally southwest from Bryson City to Nantahala. The second one is 32 miles round trip and heads generally southeast to Dillsboro.
We decided to go with the longer ride for a couple reasons: it runs more frequently and heads away from the towns to the east of the train station so in theory may be more scenic. Then you get the choice of which locomotive - steam or diesel. The price differential is around 10 bucks so we opt for the nostalgia of steam. The next decision is which class of service to select. They have 6 options if you don’t include the private caboose party (starting at $699 for up to 15 people). Four of the options are in enclosed cars with windows. We are taking the train ride to see the countryside not be served lunch on a train and looking out occasionally. The open air gondola has a premium option which includes a box lunch and a couple souvenirs which we can do without. So we picked the open air gondola and found a date with availability and a reasonable weather forecast and booked our tickets. We found out they consider 55 and up as seniors and get a 10% discount. About 8 hours after reserving the spot, we received and email telling us their steam locomotive had a mechanical issue and wouldn’t be available for our trip. We decided to stick with our original date and got refunded the price difference.
Mural at Train Station
We arrive in Bryson City, get parked and head to the counter to pick up our tickets. The train was sitting there ready to go. Each of the passenger cars are about 80 feet long. Add in the two locomotives, one caboose, a dining car and possibly the generator car for electricity used for lights or air conditioning, our train was close to a quarter mile long! They had 6 boarding spots along the length of the train and ours was the furthest away except for the group that were in the caboose. Given how far we were from the locomotive, the fact we had a diesel instead of steam powered seemed inconsequential. All the cars seemed to be in good condition. Our open air gondola was the Whittier - fourth car from the end. These cars don’t have assigned seating so we picked a spot at the end of series of long benches that face out the sides of the large openings. We picked the side on the left of the train but at the turn around point, they have each side switch with the other so we all get both views. On other cars with assigned seating, I might argue the left side offers better views.
Locomotive for Ride
Whittier - Our Open Air Gondola
The Caboose
Inside Whittier
The first mile or so of the ride coming out of Bryson City isn’t all that pretty. But once we cross the Tuckasegee River, the scenery improves a bit. There seem to be some nice rural homes within view of the tracks. Besides this daily train ride, it doesn’t seem like these tracks get a lot of train traffic. One unmistakable feature of the landscape in this part of North Carolina is the kudzu. It seems to grow just about everywhere and many of the hillsides along the track are completely blanketed with the invasive vine.
Scenic Countryside
Rounding a Curve
Kudzu Hill
At around the 8 mile mark, we start to see glimpses of Fontana Lake on the right side of the train. What’s nice about these open air gondola cars is the “window” openings are huge so it is possible to see things on each side of the train even if the other passengers are standing up. Fontana Lake is a rather odd shaped lake. The dam was constructed in the the early 1940’s and the valleys in the area have filled up creating a 29 mile long lake with 240 miles of shoreline. I suspect at any point on the lake you’re well within a half mile of the shore. At just under 11 miles on the ride, we cross another large truss bridge over one of the arms of Fontana Lake and can now see close up some of the boaters out on the lake as well as the marina in the town of Almond. It was around this point where the curves of the track and the terrain permitted us to look out the window and see both ends of the train.
Approaching Bridge - Watch Your Head!
Fontana Lake
Another Lake View
Almond Marina
This arm of Fontana Lake eventually becomes the Nantahala River although it isn’t clear where the naming designation changes. This section is quite pretty. The gorge is narrow through here and follows the river quite closely. There are numerous rafters and kayakers out enjoying the day on the river. At the 16 mile point, we pass the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC) which is ground zero for most of the river activities. More on this later.
I'm Being Watched
Whitewater Section of Nantahala River
Kayakers
Rafters Preparing for Trip
Following the River and Road
The complete 44 mile route is supposed to take about four and a half hours but for some reason we were running a bit behind schedule. Unlike a plane that can sometimes make up for delays by just going a bit faster, we have some tight turns on the track and the train is forced to go slowly through them. It’s not like we are in a hurry, so we enjoy the ride. Just over 22 miles out, we come to a stop on the track where there is a second set of tracks. We are asked to trade spots with the people on the other side of the train. This too worked out well because while we are waiting, the locomotive disengages from the front of the train and slowly makes its way the the other end. Had this been the steam locomotive, we would have been in for a real treat, but it was still neat to see it slowly rumble by. We only have about 6 miles to go to get back to the NOC. This time we come to a stop for a one hour layover.
Locomotive Switches Ends
NOC Camping Area
At least one large group of passengers had signed up for the special Raft and Rail package that only does this first portion of the trip by train and then does a rafting trip on the Nantahala River. The rest of us get off the train to wander around the NOC. Everyone is warned to not attempt to eat at any of the restaurants here since you generally cannot be seated, served, eat and make it back onboard in the allotted time. I suspect they have lost a few passengers from time to time. We simply walked around and checked out a store. It is definitely a busy place. There is a whitewater kayaking course that can be seen quite well from many vantage points. The dozen kayakers out on the water were not doing the course but simply taking turns going into one of the large standing waves. Some of them were better than others in riding the wave.
View Above Kayak Course
In He Goes
Coming Out the Hard Way
The Appalachian Trail crosses the footbridge over the Nantahala River and it looked like this is a good overnight stop for many of the thru hikers. They also had other activities including a large treetop adventure course. There were lots of people playing around the course that includes tunnels and slides. Since the whole thing has a net underneath, the participants don’t need to use a harness or safety equipment. If I were only 10 years old again!
Treetop Adventures
Beautiful Old Home at NOC
After a brief tour of the NOC, we headed back to the train and re-boarded for the remaining 16 miles or so back to the terminal. Like I mentioned earlier, the view from this side of the train isn’t quite as nice. The rock walls remaining from when the tracks were installed in the late 1800’s are much closer on this side of the train. In fact you really need to pay attention if you decide to stick your head out for a look. Back at Fontana Lake we get a chance to see many of the hundreds of houseboats that dot the lake. One thing we notice when we’re on a train, most people we pass will wave at us - whether at a house, houseboat, raft or car. We get back to the station about 30 minutes later than expected, but it was a nice ride. Maybe not quite as scenic as the Verde Canyon Railroad in Clarkdale Arizona (the Sedona area), but still worth the money.
There is a model train museum located near the terminal that train passengers get to check it out for free. With the large crowd going thru immediately after the ride, we opted to find an ice cream shop for a treat and to let the crowd thin out. The museum is rather extensive with some very large model railroad layouts constructed in two different rooms. The detail of the cities and landscapes was impressive. There are glass cases on every wall of every room with many hundreds of different model railroad cars of all different gauges. We had to rush our visit a bit since the museum closes at a fixed time instead of an offset from when the train ride returns. It was still worth the visit. I’ve edited a short video of our train ride to give you an idea of what it is like.
Impressive Model Train
Cool Train Station
Train Moves Fast on Curve
Triple-Decker Tunnel
Old Train Cars
More Old Model Trains
Newly Painted Locomotive with Patriotic Theme
Video Link
We have visited the Smokies and Asheville a couple times prior to going full time, so we have found geocaches in many of the surrounding counties, but there were still a few counties in southwest NC that we could use. So I planned out a big driving loop that would get 2 of them. Our route takes us past the NOC and along the roads next to some of the Nantahala River. It’s a pretty drive with lots of twisty roads. We stop along the river at a viewpoint and check out some of the kayakers and rafters going thru one of the small whitewater sections. The seemed to be having fun - even the raft that ended up going thru it backwards!
Kayaker Navigates Rapids
Heading in Reverse Can Work Too!
We eventually made it to the town of Andrews where we found a rather nice rest stop to have lunch and get our caches for Cherokee county. Next we backtrack a bit and then head north to the town of Robbinsville for Graham county. The cache we picked out happened to be very near a very pretty log cabin that had chinking with stones imbedded in it. We’ve seen lots of logs cabins over the years but never one quite like this.
Very Unique Log Cabin in Robbinsville
Closeup of Log/Chinking
By this point, our original mission was accomplished and we could have just headed home by backtracking, but we had picked out a short hike just to the west of Lake Santeetlah in the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. Kilmer is most famous for his poem “Trees” (I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree…) and was killed in France during World War I. Some of the trees in this forest are rather large. It was a pretty hike although one half of our intended loop was closed so we needed to do it as an out an back.
Deep Red Flower on Carolina All Spice Bush
Chris Poses with a Big One
Bridge Over Creek
Six-Spotted Tiger Beetle Looks Metalic
From here, we continued north of Robbinsville and stopped at an interesting pedestrian suspension bridge over the Cheoah River. Another spot the majority of people will drive right by except for some geocaches. There is a pullout along the side of the road for one or two vehicles. The bridge probably spans 150 feet across the river. It really isn’t clear why the bridge is here. There is a bit of a trail on the other side but not a trail coming from the across the road. We head out to the middle with Chris even making it even though the bridge has quite a bit of sway with the two of us moving on it. There is a very large structure just up from the bridge that appears to be some sort of pipe. Given its diameter, I suspect a water pipe. From subsequent investigation, this pipe carries water from Lake Santeetlah to a power plant on Cheoah Reservoir just below Fontana Dam.
Chris Proceeds Cautiously
View from Middle of Bridge
Huge Water Pipe Over Road
From here we continue north and then east to check out the aforementioned dam. Little did I realize that our route took us right past the southern end of a road affectionately called “Tail of the Dragon”. The 11 mile stretch of US 129 just north of us has 318 curves in that short distance and is a favorite of people with sports cars or motorcycles. Probably just as well since our Jeep is no sports car. The visitor center at Fontana Dam is closed because of COVID abut it is still possible to wander the grounds and head up to the observation deck. The dam is over 2300 feet across and 480 feet tall - making it the highest dam east of the Mississippi. We were rather beat by the time we got here so we checked out the displays and the dam and then headed home.
Fontana Dam
Dam Visitor Center
Downstream of Dam
View of Spillway and Lake
Spillway's Exit
For an easy day, we head into downtown Waynesville to do a bit of a walking tour provided by a geocache. The historic district is a quaint area with several blocks of small shops and restaurants as well as some unique artwork. Walking distance down the hill from the historic district is where the railroad thru town was built. This area is called “Frog Level” probably because it is right by Richland Creek. We stopped by Frog Level Brewery to enjoy a beer while sitting outside by the creek.
"Old Time Music"
Metal Flowers
At Frog Level
Another nice thing about this part of North Carolina is the Blue Ridge Parkway runs through the area. The BRP generally runs in a southwesterly direction from its start in northern Virginia, but just to the south of Waynesville it switches to a more northwesterly track as it heads towards Great Smoky Mountains NP. The upshot of this is we can actually head west, south, or east from our spot and run into different sections of the Parkway. One morning, we picked up the BRP near Maggie Valley and headed to the Waterrock Knob Visitor Center. We weren’t expecting rain but the clouds like to hang in the hills. We stopped at a few overlooks on the way there and wondered if we would get wet on our planned walk.
Dramatic Clouds on Blue Ridge
Another Pullout View
When we got to the large parking area at Waterrock Knob, the clouds were rolling in over the ridge but it wasn’t actually raining. We did a quick stop at the visitor center and Chris stamped her National Park Passport book before we headed up the trail to the top of the knob. It’s not a long trail at just under 1/2 mile but it is rather steep with an average 18% grade to get to the top. The first half of the walk is a paved incline that is tiring but good footing. The second half is a rocky trail that requires oneself to pay attention to your footing. I was still nursing my leg injury, so it was a slow climb, but we made it and got some nice views of the surrounding hills and valleys.
View from Trail at Waterrock Knob
Looking at Town of Cherokee 10 miles Away
Rocky Trail Up Waterrock Knob
View from Knob
Paved Section of Trail
Next post: some excursions into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
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