Our initial visit to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was from the Sugarlands Visitor Center on the northern (Tennessee) side of the Park.  We stopped in the visitors center to get maps and information on the Cades Cove Driving Tour.  The 11-mile one-way loop drive begins about 25 miles west of the visitors center.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we stopped along the way for a picnic on the river.  The chairs and table we got from Rick in Nashville really came in handy. Go Bucs!

Once we arrived at the beginning of the loop we followed it around, stopping a various sites of interest, mainly original log cabins from the 1830’s and 40’s, when over 100 families lived in this area. The first cabin was the John Oliver Place and we took a nice walk in the woods to reach the homestead. This is the oldest log home in Cades Cove, built in the early 1820’s at this original spot.

We saw several other cabins and out-buildings (corn crib, smokehouse, outhouse), including the Elijah Oliver Place with a “stranger room” added to the front porch to accommodate overnight visitors.  We walked about a mile round-trip to see this cabin.

The scenery was beautiful and here are some of the other cabins we saw along the loop.  Notice the cantilever (counterweighted overhanging beams) barn with the overhang to protect the animals in the winter and storage space for farm equipment.

We drove a bit further into the Park along Newfound Gap Road and stopped at Chimney Tops. What a beautiful place this was! I would have liked to spend the day there and do some hiking but it was getting late and we had to get back to camp.

Next week we will be in Cherokee, NC and explore the Park from the southern (North Carolina) side.