Thanksgiving in Smoky Mountains National Park

We were very wrong when we thought we would have the park to ourselves for Thanksgiving. Apparently EVERYONE in the surrounding area decided Thanksgiving Day would be a goods time to take a drive through the park before their big feast. We got caught up in a see of people and even more vehicles!! Many of the park roads were closed due to snow and ice they received a day or so before we arrived. In fact, we postponed our trip into the park by a day to miss some of this chilly weather. (It’s funny that we now think of 20 degree weather as cold. Our friend Bob in Alaska told us it is has been negative 20 degrees for the past month. But when you live in a van and are constantly exposed to an outside temperature of 20 degrees it can take its toll. I now understand why it is common to see homeless people wearing winter coats when it is 60 degrees outside. Once you get a chill, it can stay with you for days.)

Entrance to the Park

Smoky Mountains Scenery

Things got better when we finally made it to a campsite within the park. Although there were still a fair amount of people there, we were able to find a nice spot nestled in the pines and in full light of the sun. We settled in and began the long process of creating a Thanksgiving feast that only took 15 minutes to consume.

Thanksgiving Cheers

We got up early the next day to avoid the crowds at Laurel Falls. The mile and a half hike was a great way to work off some of our turkey stupor. We were successful and had the falls all to ourselves.
Cades Cove, the other main attraction in the park was a different story. We arrived there at peak visitation time and it was packed. It took us most of the day to finish the eleven-mile auto tour. For those of you who haven’t made it to this park Cades Cove is an area that was settled in the 1820’s and eventually grew to have 125 families living there. A variety of the old buildings are still standing and open for public viewing. We got a big kick out of seeing first hand how these people lived.

Cades Cove Scenery

Cades Cove Cabin