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Like I previously mentioned, Great Smoky Mountains National Park is only a few miles from our camping spot but there really isn’t much of an entrance near us. We actually attempted to check out the hiking that starts at the end of Hemp Hill Road but discovered the parking near the park’s gate is extremely limited and there are lots of “no parking” signs. I would guess the park staff is trying to limit the accessibility from this remote location. GSMNP is the most visited national park in the US. I suspect the majority of those visitors come in from the Tennessee side - places like Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge or even Sevierville. Prior to going full time, we did some camping near Gatlinburg but must admit, the crowds and tourist traps associated with the north side of the park are a big turn off for us.
Our easiest way into the park for us is thru Maggie Valley to the Blue Ridge Parkway which ends (or begins) at the southern entrance to the park. It’s also possible to just follow US-19 into and thru the town of Cherokee. Our first day trip to the park brings us to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center. This is a very busy place and while the parking lot might have room for 100 vehicles or so, this isn’t nearly enough at least for the crowds when we arrived but we lucked out and got a spot. The building is open however some of the exhibits are still closed off because of COVID. We pick up some maps and literature for the park and head out to the Mountain Farm Museum that is immediately behind the visitor center.
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| Entering GSMNP |
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| Oconaluftee Visitor Center |
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| Large Quilt in Visitor Center |
This museum is a collection of several buildings gathered from throughout the Smoky Mountains and moved here in the 1950’s. All the buildings date back to the late 1800’s and the park does a nice job of keeping them in good condition. Volunteers often will come to put on demonstrations dressed in the clothing from the time this represents. During our visit, one man was playing music on the front porch of the cabin while a woman was stoking a fire in the kitchen to bake cookies. They both attracted large audiences and would answer questions from the visitors.
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| Approaching the Mountain Farm Museum |
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| Side View of Cabin |
The smaller buildings include an applehouse, spring house and smokehouse. There was also a chicken coop but it’s door was closed and a sign asked us to leave the chickens alone since they were recently moved to the farm and were still adjusting to their new home.
At the far end of the museum property is the barn and what a barn it is. It’s huge - nearly 60 feet per side covered with its roof. The portion for livestock was centered in the middle of the roof leaving lots of covered holding areas for farm equipment and supplies. There were also some fields and gardens denoted by fences but it actually isn’t being utilized. One possible problem with growing food here are the elks that wander around the area at times. The small orchard actually has a modern metal fence around it in an attempt to keep the hungry elk from decimating the apples. By the time we walked back thru to leave, the staff had released the chickens and had given buckets of feed for the children. The chickens were following the kids around gobbling up the food. Inside the chicken coop some of the chickens were back roosting. Maybe they had grown tired of the rambunctious kids chasing them. |
| Huge Barn |
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| Chickens Follow the Kids with Feed |
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| Pecking for Feed |
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| Resting in the Coop |
Just over a half mile north of the visitor center is Mingus Mill. We hated to give up our parking spot, but with all the traffic on the park road and no real sidewalk or path, we figured it was safer to drive to the mill. There was more than enough parking at the mill so that wasn’t an issue. We have visited this place once before back in 2014 based on a virtual geocache we found then. I hate to admit it, but I really don’t have much recollection of being here. To some degree, that’s why I have been writing these blog posts. So seven years from now, I can look back at this post and refresh my memory.
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| Looking Down Water Raceway at Mingus Mill |
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| Another Mill View |
Built in 1886, this mill is still in operation. Volunteers staff the building and still make and sell wheat flour and corn meal. COVID restrictions prevent visitors from entering the mill, but we can wait our turn in line to peek inside at the door and ask questions of the staff. It’s also possible to walk below the building to see the workings of this mill. Instead of a large water wheel being used to turn the grindstone from a horizontal driveshaft, in this design the water comes down the raceway into a large pipe that feeds a small metal turbine with a vertical shaft up thru the floor of the mill. It was tricky to get a photo thru the structure beneath the mill but the one I got shows the pipe on the left, the turbine enclosed in a metal housing and the vertical drive shaft. Since we couldn’t get inside it’s unclear how the main driveshaft powers the millstones above. |
| View Through the Front Door |
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| Excess Water Overflow |
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| Turbine Under Mingus Mill |
We took advantage of the picnic tables near the parking lot for the mill to have our lunch and then headed back to the visitor center. We wanted to walk the Oconaluftee River Trail that starts near the museum. Again we got lucky and found a parking spot and started down the trail. This is an out and back trail that pretty much follows the river into the town of Cherokee about 1.5 miles to the south. There is barely any elevation change so it was an easy walk to test out my leg. Lots of flowers were in bloom and the trail wasn’t exceptionally busy. There is an elaborate stone sign at the entrance to Cherokee.
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| View at Overlook Along BRP |
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| A Fire Tower to Search For |
A couple days later, we head back into GSMNP but this time for the polar opposite of our visit to Oconaluftee. Instead of the large crowds of people, we head to Cataloochee Valley where sometimes the elk outnumber the visitors. This valley is on the far eastern side of the park and cannot be accessed from the main park roads. Even though it’s less than 6 “crow miles” from our camping spot, the drive to Cataloochee is a bit of a challenge. Heading north on US-276 until just before I-40, we turn left onto Cove Creek Road. The first 4 miles or so is on pavement as the road heads up. I was surprised by how many homes are along the way. They have pretty settings but the drive home each day could get old. There are plenty of twists and turns. After that, the pavement ends and we have gravel road for 3 more miles as it works it’s way up and over the Cataloochee Divide and starts to descend into the valley.
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| We Meet Bigfoot on Drive to Cataloochee |
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| Entering the Park at Cataloochee Divide |
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| Waterfalls on the Drive Up |
A quarter mile after the switch from gravel back to pavement is a parking lot with a climb up to a viewpoint over the valley. It’s work the effort to walk up the short but steep grade to have the best views. The initial drive into the valley is about 11 miles total. At least when we went, even the gravel section was in good shape and just about any car, SUV or truck should be able to make it. I wouldn’t attempt the drive with anything but the shortest of RVs.
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| View at Overlook |
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| Trail Back Down from Overlook |
This valley was settled back in the late 1800’s and by 1910, 1200 people lived here. There were churches, a school and close to 200 homes. When the national park was being established in the 1920’s and 1930’s, the residents moved out to make way for the park. Most of the original buildings were removed or left to rot but in the main valley there are still 5 building sites that the park service kept and maintains. Our first stop is a short drive down another dirt road to the Palmer House. The original log home built in 1860 was sided with wood around 1902 when sawmills were brought into the valley. The home is open to the public and we took our time exploring the rooms. Many of them have remnants of many layers of original wallpaper as well as newspapers from the day. Not only were the walls covered but so were many of the ceilings. One of the newer additions to the original house is setup like a mini-museum with lots of pictures and signs describing the way the valley had been.
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| Palmer Place |
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| Room Missing Wallpaper |
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| Room in Process of Losing Ceiling Paper |
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| Residual Newspaper |
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| The History of Cataloochee Valley |
There are several other auxiliary buildings including the blacksmith shop and the spring house. But for sure the most impressive building is the old barn. The three story structure can be explored inside and out. There wasn’t much to see in the first floor, but a ramp leads up to the second floor. Some of the floor boards are in rough shape but it is possible to safely wander around. A large bench is situated at a big opening in the end of the barn and allows visitors to overlook the home and the rest of the property. A ladder leads up to the third floor, but after sticking my head up there and taking a picture, I decided it didn’t look safe to walk around.
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| Spring House at Palmer Place |
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| Home with Large Barn in Distance |
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| Approaching the Three Story Barn |
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| A Ramp Leads to Second Floor |
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| Second Floor Bench Overlooks House |
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| Second Floor Shadows |
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| Third Floor |
Back up to the paved road and heading west will take us past the campground. We didn’t explore the it but the description says RVs up to 31 feet can be accommodated. Just as the road switches back to gravel is Palmer Chapel. Built in 1898, the park service has done a wonderful job of maintaining this building. Descendants of the original residents have a reunion each year here. The chapel doesn’t face the current main road, but a short walk across the field will get you to the entrance.
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| Palmer Chapel |
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| Inside Chapel |
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| View from Pulpit |
A very short drive down the road brings us to the Beech Grove School only a short walk from the parking spots. Built in 1901, this was one of three school houses in the general area! It’s a very plain building but quite functional with the old style desks. I remember ones like this in grade school myself. All the fields along the road have signs stating they are closed when elk are present. As we went past each one, we here on the lookout for elk but never spotted any.
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| Beech Grove School |
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| Brings Back Memories |
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| No Elk for Us |
About half mile beyond the school is the Caldwell House. Slightly newer than the others (1906), this home was bigger and more elaborate than the others. The home has a large wrap around porch. Many of the interior rooms were lined with bead board and door trim has rosettes in the upper corners. That didn’t mean that all the rooms were fancy, even some of upstairs rooms were lined with newspapers.
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| Heading Up to Caldwell House |
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| Better View with Large Porch |
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| Fancy Woodworking |
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| Newspaper Ads for Men's Pants |
Back by the road (and parking area) is the big barn the Caldwells built. This 2 story barn is also accessible. The creaky floorboards aren’t real reassuring but I carefully walked around to check it out. |
| View of Barn from Front Porch |
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| Caldwell Barn |
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| Looking Out Second Floor Walls |
The gravel road only goes another half mile past the Caldwell House where it ends at a locked gate and a small parking area. The Rough Fork Trail begins here and connects with several other trails within the park. We only plan on doing the 1 mile walk out to the Woody Place - the remaining structure in the Cataloochee Valley. It’s an easy walk along a service road for most of the way. There are however several stream crossings in that distance. Even though the water wasn’t super deep, it was easier to cross the log footbridges. The first two were fine but the third one appears to have been dislodged a bit and was tilted. Fortunately it was a dry day and we made it across without incident. Wildflowers and mushrooms were abundant along the walk.
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| Rough Fork Trailhead |
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| Log Footbridge #1 |
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| Bee Balm with Bridge in Background |
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| Closeup of Bee Balm |
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| Log Footbridge #2 |
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| Tilted Footbridge #3 |
After the mile walk we get to Woody House. This home has some nice detail in the gable ends. The walk back was easy enough but when we arrived at the car and the adjacent field, we still didn’t have any elk to watch.
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| Woody House |
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| Mushroom Growing on Fallen Tree |
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| Rhododendron Starts to Bloom |
There were a few more building sites but the remaining ones are in a different valley - the Little Cataloochee Valley. This area started to be used after all the good sites in Cataloochee Valley were taken. This area is even more remote and will require a bit more effort to see them. The journey starts out with a 5 mile drive past the Palmer House. This is a steep, narrow and winding gravel road around Noland Mountain. Lots of hairpin curves and a few one lane bridges add to the challenge. We take it slow and don’t run into oncoming traffic which helped. At the trailhead for the Little Cataloochee Trail, the road is wide enough to park a vehicle or two. We turn the Jeep around before we park in case somebody else shows up while we are hiking. |
| Little Cataloochee Trailhead |
There are three building sites along this trail but we planned on letting our legs tell us how many of them we would explore. The trail is actually a forest service road behind a gate. It’s in pretty good shape but fairly rocky with a gradual downhill followed by a gradual uphill before we get to our first stop at the 1.3 mile point. Hannah Cabin is a few hundred feet off the road and isn’t really visible from it so you need to be paying attention. There is a sign along the road but it could be easily missed. Built in 1864, this cabin is in excellent condition for something over 150 years old! Open to visitors, I’m amazed we didn’t run into a family of raccoons or skunks calling Hannah Cabin their own. It’s not a big cabin but there are steps leading up to a structurally sound second floor. I suppose if we get caught in some severe weather, we could ride it out in reasonable comfort inside.
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| Sign for Hannah Cabin |
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| Hannah Cabin |
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| Fireplace and Stairs |
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| Second Floor |
We were feeling reasonably good and decided we could proceed to the next destination another 0.7 miles out. There was a bit more downhill where we crossed the Little Cataloochee Creek. Then we started to climb. For 0.6 miles it was a constant uphill gaining 300 feet in the process. During the climb, we kept looking at the surrounding landscape and thick forest and thinking, there’s no way there is a building around here - especially a church! But as we approached the crest of the hill, we could see glimpses of a large white building.
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| Little Cataloochee Baptist Church |
Once we got here, we realized the effort required was well worth it. Little Cataloochee Baptist Church was built in 1889 and is quite ornate for the surroundings. There is a small cemetery just to the south of the church that is nicely maintained. There are many white benches inside with plenty of space for 60 or more worshippers. A wood burning stove sits right in the middle of the church. This church also holds annual reunions for descendants from the area. Behind the church are many large wooden tables that are probably used for the food brought up for the gathering. I would have to imagine the gate is opened to allow vehicles or horses to get church members back here for the reunion given the effort our walk required. On our way out of the church we rang the bell, but suspect nobody else heard it.
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| Church with Fancy Steeple |
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| Inside Church |
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| Another Pulpit View |
The third building remaining in Little Cataloochee Valley is the Cook Cabin. For all we know, it may be the best one of all, but being another 0.7 miles beyond the church, we realized our legs wouldn't make it that far and back to the car. As it was, the 2 miles to the trailhead took nearly all of our energy. The drive back down to Cataloochee Valley went without incident and we decided to drive back as far as the Caldwell house to see if it was late enough in the day to see elk in the fields. Again, we had no luck and were too tired to sit and wait. We’ve seen lots of elk in our travels so not seeing them here isn’t a big loss. Plus I’m sure the drive up and over Cataloochee Divide would be even more challenging in the dark.
There were still a couple North Carolina counties within a reasonable driving distance that we have yet to find geocaches in, but they were in opposite directions so we decided to pick one and head to Transylvania county. If all we wanted was to find the nearest geocache in this county, we could have driven south on US-276, cross the Blue Ridge Parkway and found one at a pullout. But we were curious if there might be something else to see in that general direction. With minimal investigation, we found the Cradle of Forestry about 15 miles beyond the BRP. Given our affinity to hiking in forests, this seemed to be right up our alley. So we packed a cooler and headed out for a day trip.
I had also noticed a geocache at a place called Camp Hope near the town of Canton NC. It was right on our route and sounded interesting. Originally started in 1920 by a wood pulp and paper company in Canton for its employees, over the past century it has changed hands multiple times but is still in operation today. Run by the town now, Camp Hope has a large hall and covered patio as well as multiple cabins, basketball courts and playground equipment. As we wandered past the hall, we met a woman that was setting up for some event later that afternoon. She gave a I brief background of the camp and told us it can still be rented out for parties or receptions or even boy scout camp outs.
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| Entrance to Camp Hope |
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| Camp Hope Setting is Pretty |
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| Large Hall and Covered Patio |
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| Camper's Welcome Center |
The Cradle of Forestry in America is a pretty good sized place. Admission is a reasonable $6 per person but with our America the Beautiful National Park Pass, we get 50% off. There is a large indoor Forest Discovery Center and several outdoor trails and exhibits. We wait for the next showing of the 26 minute movie describing what this place is all about. The condensed version: In the late 1800’s George Vanderbilt bought over 100,000 acres of land near Asheville. Besides having the Biltmore House built, he was concerned about the forests in the land and believed that with proper management of the forest could both be improved and produce a profit. In 1895, Vanderbilt hired Carl Schenck to manage his forestland. By 1989, Schenck created the first forestry school in America - the Biltmore Forest School. Much of the forestland was sold to the US government and became the Pisgah National Forest.
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| Entrance to Cradle of Forestry |
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| Forest Discovery Center |
After the movie, we decide to visit the outdoor exhibits while it wasn't raining. There are several trails on the grounds of the museum. We start with the Forest Discover and Forest Festival Trail which make up a 2.2 mile loop. The second half of the walk takes us by all sorts of old equipment. There is a steam powered engine driving the belt for the sawmill. A bit further is a large shelter that keeps the 1914 locomotive safe from the weather. It's a neat display but could use a bit better light to see the details of the nicely refurbished locomotive.
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| Steam Engine for Sawmill |
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| Inside Sawmill |
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| 1914 Locomotive |
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| Locomotive Badge |
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| Locomotive Shelter |
Beyond the shelter is a neat old log loader on a train car as well as some old road grading equipment.
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| American Log Loader |
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| Trail Under Rail Tracks |
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| Old Road Grader |
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| Pretty Blooms |
The next trail is the Biltmore Campus Trail. This one mile loop has a series of the buildings used as part of the forestry school. This includes a schoolhouse, general store, boarding cabins and a blacksmith shop. At each stop, there is an audio presentation that describes the building and what part it played in the training of the students. Both of us have often wondered if we could have made it as forest rangers instead of engineers. It was reflective to be able to see this old time forestry program and wander "what if".
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| Chris Takes a Seat in the Classroom |
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| General Store |
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| Pretty Home |
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| Inside Kitchen |
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| Fancy Woodwork in Gable End |
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| Kitchen Table is Set for Us |
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| Blacksmith Shop |
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| Moth with White Splotch |
Back at main building, we head to the car for lunch before coming back in to explore the inside displays. These too have audio presentations that can be played to learn more details than the brief interpretive signs. It was interesting to learn that the Biltmore sticks we used once in a forestry training class we took years ago were developed as part of this school. Probably my favorite display was the forest service helicopter. After entering the rear seat and pressing the play button, our two mannequin pilots take off to go look at a raging forest fire. The windshield of the copter is a display and we can see the forest burning below. Not quite as elaborate as a Disney ride with motion and smoke, but effective nonetheless.
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| Tools of the Trade |
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| Helicopter Display |
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| Various Local Wood Species |
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| "Fuzzy Fisher" |
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| Forest Service Quilt |
We still hadn't found a geocache yet, but just a quarter mile north of the museum is the Pink Beds Loop Trail. There are numerous caches along the full 6 mile loop. There is a short cut trail that can be taken to drop the distance to a more reasonable 3.2 miles. It turned out this trail system was a wet and muddy mess. We did find 7 of the 8 geocaches along our loop but this trail won't make it to our favorite list. We took a different route on the drive back and traveled on another section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Stopping at several of the pullouts at overlooks. It turned out to be a good day overall.
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| Bridge at Pink Beds Trail |
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| Looking Glass Rock View from Parkway |
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