A trip to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is a wonderful experience and one that is usually in touch with nature.  The park is well known for its bears, history, waterfalls, and the many miles of hiking trails.  This is one of the very few national parks that is still free to visit, attracting more than 11 million people each year making this park the most visited national park in the United States.

This trip will be about a week long.  Every time I go back to the mountains I see something different.  Variety is one thing that this place certainly has a lot of.   I am taking both my medium and large format film cameras to capture the very best scenes and will be using the digital for all else.

Cades Cove

The most popular and busiest place visited in all of the Great Smoky Mountains.  The 11 mile loop is lined with the old homesteads and churches dating back to the turn of the 20th century.  The cove is also well known for its thriving bear population that attracts large crowds that sometimes stops the traffic on the loop from moving.   Anyone planning to go here should plan on it taking the whole day.

Cades Cove Methodist Church

Elkmont

A more quiet place would be Elkmont.  Adjacent the Elkmont Campground is a road that goes up to an abandoned community resort known as the Appalachian Club, which is now known as the Elkmont Historic District.  More than half of the cabins that lined Jakes Creek were torn down a couple of years ago leaving only the chimneys.  The group of houses still remain along the street leading to the club house.  Work to preserve the remaining structures are underway.

Chimney at Elkmont

Tremont

The Middle Prong Trail is an equestrian trail that runs along side of a beautiful creek called Middle Prong.  The creek has several unnamed waterfalls that are picturesque and is little known to many visitors.

Autumn in the Smokies

Roaring Fork

On a side road outside of Gatlinburg Tennessee is the Roaring Fork Motor Trail.  This motor trail also has old homesteads, trails, creeks and waterfalls similar to Cades Cove, just not nearly as busy.

“Reagans Mill”

These are just a few places that have always been of interest to me.  There are many other areas within the park that is every bit as interesting as what I have listed here.  The park is huge, and the amount of subjects that one can photograph are endless.

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