Camping at Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Smoky mountains..the first place that comes to mind when we hear about fall colors. We went to Smokies to check out its elegant fall colors in late October 2009 for the first time. As with any camping trip, it included a lot of planning, study the park and trail maps, book the campsite well in advance, know the place and activities, buy necessary equipment for example bear spray, mosquito repellants, portable heater etc.

Day 1: After a 9hour drive, we reached Elkmont campground late in the evening. This campground was our best option because it is almost midway in the park and provides an easy drive to either sides. It had no showers and one surely wouldn’t miss it (I hated to touch the ice cold water in that chilling nights). We set up the tent pretty fast, freshen up, lit the campfire and had dinner. Before sleeping, we had to pack all the food items back in the car and dispose the trash in the special dumpsters to avoid bear attacks.

Day 2: Excited for a real hike, we packed lunch and headed out for the day. When hiking down from laurel falls, we spotted our first bear, so close roaming just around the trail. Then we drove on the scenic Newfound Gap Road to Clingmans dome tower, taking pictures at lookouts. We stopped for lunch at Chimney tops picnic area and there again was a bear high up on the tree. The Clingmans dome trail was very steep and tiring but the tower, being in the center of the park, offered great views.

 Day 3: Alum cave Bluffs trail, this was the most strenuous of hikes till date for me. Evening we drove in the 11 mile one-way Cades Cove loop road which featured churches, mills and houses as remnants of Cherokee Indians (Native American Tribe) in 1800s and acres of grasslands in the beautiful valley. It was easy to locate deers and other wild life and biking and horse riding seemed popular.

Day 4: Explored south-east part of the park and hiked to Indian creek falls. On the way back to campground, we went to Cherokee. Very different from its counterpart Gatlinburg, it was very quiet, still stuck in 1950s with delightful museums, galleries and souvenir shops.

Day 5: Few stops at Gatlinburg and drove back home. This post would be incomplete without mentioning a special guest, our companion for the 9 hr drive back to A2. A SNAKE!!! Definitely interesting topic for the next post J

Smokies is very family friendly which is evident in all ages of people and huge crowds it draws every year. Few things we didn’t like: There would be miles of traffic whenever someone spot a bear, the trails are usually packed and the scenery is at times mediocre and not worth the drive and effort. Overall, it was good but exhausting and we had to plan for a second visit to explore the rest of the park.

And there we were, back to Smokies on a 6-day trip in May 2010. No doubt, it is very famous for its remarkable fall colors, but it’s beauty is no less in Summer. We stayed at the same Elkmont campground. This time we had lot of time, so spent our evenings reading novel (I got it from the campground office for free) sitting at campfire savoring chips and pop. We hiked to Rainbow falls, Abrams falls trail in the Cades Cove loop, Gabes Mountain trail to Hen Wallow falls, explored quiet walkways(unpaved trails into the forest) and the campground (we noticed there is a open air auditorium). This trip was very relaxing as opposed to the last one and white water rafting and the illuminant forest with thousands of fire flies at night were few highlights.

Camping Upnorth Michigan – Brimley State Park

July long weekend 2009, our first camping trip and vacation after coming to US. Very excited, reserved campsite at Brimley state park, got maps from AAA to plan for the days and did a little shopping- fireworks, charcoal grill, food supplies. Rama(my dh) already had everything we needed for camping.

Drive was about five and half hours from Ann Arbor and Rama drove our new Chevy Malibu most of the time(or all the timeJ). It was afternoon by the time we reached Mackinaw city(last point in lower peninsula before taking Mackinac bridge to Upper Peninsula) and we were in a hurry to reach campground and set up tent in the day light, so we had to miss Mackinac island. The campground was almost full with tents, RVs and trailers because of the long weekend and kids riding bikes and playing all around. The campsites were closer than we expected, but our campsite was on the shore of Lake Superior(these words remind me of my Social Studies class in my childhood about this largest fresh water lake in the world and here I am so close to it) We were lucky to complete the tent set up by evening and enjoy dinner (Grilled chicken and veggies) prepared by Rama with beautiful sunset across the lake and campfire. One thing here, it was so cold and windy for July that I was chilling though campfire helped. 

 On the second day, We woke up to the waves of Lake Superior and chirping birds and leisurely got ready. This was the only campground we went that has showers, which Rama feels is an absolute waste of time. He made breakfast(s’mores, brats and juice) and lunch(chicken Sandwich), I was mostly a helper, cutting veggies, roasting corn, prepare sandwiches. We packed our lunch, water, camera, maps etc in the backpack and drove to Menekaunee point. It was a short easy 1.4 mile hike to Noamikong Point look out, with water almost all along the way and beautiful wild flowers. We got down in the lake as the water wasn’t that cold as it was at our campsite and hiked slowly taking pictures all along. We were disappointed when we arrived at the lookout to see a road :P, but the trail totally made up for it. As we walked back we took more pictures, had lunch by the water and started driving to Sault Ste Marie. On the way, we stopped for a quick nap on the sandy beach at Big Pine picnic area and then at the Light house at Point Iroquois. Finally we arrived at Sault Ste. Marie (pronounced as Soo Saint Ma-ree), famous for it’s Soo locks – a mechanism to allow ships’ transition between two different water levels. First Gates are opened on one side of the lock for the ship to enter from St. Marys River. Then the gates are closed to fill the lock to the water level on the other side, finally the other Gates are opened and the ship enters Lake Superior. 

We watched a short movie on how these locks were built and amazed by their superior technology in 1855. By the time we came out, the streets were packed with people, all chairs on either sides of the road, ready for the Independence day Parade. We liked it a lot, especially the people and their hospitality and I was happy to get myself a few candiesJ. It was dark by the time we reached campsite and watched the fireworks from across the lake, we believe from Sault Ste. Marie. Then Rama started preparing dinner and it was very late by the time we slept.

On the third day, we drove to the popular Tahquamenon Waterfalls. The upper Tahquamenon falls were very pretty with lot of people and there was a 4 mile hike to the lower falls. The vegetation was more dense than the day before, with lush green ferns, but there were lot of mosquitoes because of which we turned back after about a mile. Then we drove to Whitefish point, we walked around Whitefish Point light station, Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum and Bird Observatory. We came back early to spend last night at the campsite, set up campfire, watched beautiful Sunset across the lake, used our fireworks and had dinner under stars with a long chat.

On the fourth day, it was raining all morning and by noon, we were able to take off the tent and head back to our home sweet home, my first long drive. It was a good camping trip to start with: short, near and great weather being in summer. ()Things we could have done better: be prepared for the cold and lessen driving to spend more time with nature. The best part was Mornings, Sunset and Rama’s BBQ. We definitely want to go back upnorth with next on our list: Mackinac island, Pictured Rocks, Sleeping Bear Dunes &Traverse city.