With less than 200 miles to travel this is, by far, the shortest driving day on the week-long trip east and it began with the long, slow drive from I-40 to Smokey Mountains National Park on U.S. 441.
I am not exaggerating when I say that the 30-mile portion of 441 through Sevierville, TN that leads to the park may well be the ugliest stretch of highway in the United States.
The sheer volume of chain restaurants is breathtaking but what really sets this stretch road apart from thousands of others like it is the unabashed, unbridled effort that is being made to sell products that have no lasting value.
As Betsy said it’s like a linear outlet mall devoted exclusively to selling products only seen on TV.
But that’s not all. After you’ve bought all of the snuggies, workout equipment and kitchen appliances that you need – and had a nice meal at all three of the Cracker Barrels – you will, of course, need to be entertained.
My personal favorite was the replica of the Titanic, complete with iceberg.
Of course, with all of these thousands of businesses competing for attention, signage is critical. I think there may be more signs on U.S. 441 outside the park than there are trees inside the park.
My personal favorite was the sign for a barbecue restaurant that was fashioned in the shape of a huge smoker complete with “smoke” wafting from the vent pipe. Embedded into the center of the smoker was a huge digital screen that played an endless loop of barbecued meats being forked from the grill, cut up and consumed by happy patrons.
Finally, we escaped into America’s most-visited national park. Even on a weekday in April it was crowded. Inexplicably SMNP is one of the few major parks in the NPS system that does not charge an entrance fee. Truly, this is a park that is being loved to death.
We stopped in at the visitor center and watched a nice film of scenes from the park that we had no chance of seeing ourselves.
We then drove to the parking area for the short (but quite steep) trail to Clingman’s Dome. The highest point in Tennessee and the second-highest in the eastern U.S. On a previous trip here we ascended the highpoint in a driving rain and visibility was zero. However, today the air was quite clear and the cloud deck was high enough that virtually every distant mountain was visible, including the east’s highest point, Mt. Mitchell, 73 miles to the east.
Cool, clear and overcast it was really a spectacular day to view the Smokeys. We pulled out folding chairs and set them on the edge (literally) of the parking lot and ate our picnic lunch while taking in the magnificence splayed out below us. Best of all, even from this lofty perch, we could not see a single smoking sign.
Having crossed back and forth between Tennessee and North Carolina on the drive up to Clingman’s Dome we turned south into North Carolina for good on the drive down hill and entered the Blueridge Parkway on the southern edge of SMNP.
The southern section of the BRPW twists and turns more than any other section and treated us to some spectacular views with plenty of “smoke” (mist and small clouds). Unfortunately, just as we neared our destination – the Pisgah Lodge (once part of the sprawling Vanderbilt Estate) – the “smoke” turned into real fog and real rain.
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