Great Smokies National Park is within a day’s drive of a large percentage of the U.S. population, so it gets more visitors than Yosemite, Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon … and we saw a lot of them today. Fortunately, the traffic kept moving and the animals did not seem to mind the crowds at all. The wildlife you would hope to see include bears, deer and elk. We were lucky enough to see all three. (See below.)

The park has two main roads. One is the road to Cades Cove, which is not a water cove at all. It is a valley that was farmed for many years, with views of the mountains all around. An 11-mile loop road runs through the valley and since it is a one-way road, it retains its charm despite the heavy visitation. The other road crosses the park from the Tennessee side to the North Carolina side, cresting at Newfound Gap, one of the highest mountain pass in the eastern United States.

There are 800 miles of trails in the park, so it is possible to get away from the crowds. We had a totally sunny day, but it is still early spring and most of the trees are still without leaves. I thought things would be in full bloom at this point, but they are not. The one piece of advice I would give to anyone following our route would be start no earlier than April 15. I think we have been 2 to 4 weeks ahead of the best Spring conditions. C’est la vie.