Pacific To Atlantic - Day 9 - Smokies & 31st

2008 Dec 31st, Wednesday.. late-late night
Roadtrip Diary - Day 9 - Smokies NP & 31st night in Atlanta..

The day indeed started early.. again i didn't follow the alarm.. late-night 2pm to 7am.. So really had only 5 hrs sleep. ..but still was really enthu to see Smokies NP.

In the morning, we realized that we were staying in a motel owned by indian family again.. gujarati family.. they had sold the hotel to hilton that morning and will be moving to Pigeon forge.. they must have become millionaire.. So on 31st, from now, the motel will be closed.. so ours was indeed a last night in the motel.

We started with "roaring fork motor drive nature trail".. supposed to be nice auto drive.. it was full of orchid trees.. another set of different trees in our roadtrip.. Trees are indeed tall on the mountain slope.. so, previous night, probably we felt complete darkness becasue of these dense trees. After 3-4 miles, the main auto trail was closed due to winter.. so we had to turn back.. actual trail would have given us eastern smokies looks.. so missed it..

again.. the timezone adjustments in the car, messed up my time calculation :).. so we went to "ober gatlinberg" at 9am instead of my pre-planned 8am or 8:30am.

The "Ober gatlinberg" tramway was indeed a good experience.. the tram-operator was also funny and had some bizzare accent texan-country style + german flavor :).. the tram travelled at 12mph for around 15 mins. the top was around 3100ft.. when i was in gatlinberg, i was lil bit disappointed with the commercialization of the whole town and in turn felt bad that somkies is becoming commercialized... but when "ober gatlinberg" tram was climbing up, i found out vastness of smokies and gatlinberg was almost nothing infront of those mountain ranges.. Gatlinberg is set in a valley.. but still local residences and new resorts were showing up their existance on our path on those mountain ranges.

Ober gutenberg is a ski resort.. and have lot of snow tracks.. but it seemed like it hasn't snowed for a while in there.. so all upper/difficult tracks were closed.. only begineer patches were open.. so those snow patches must be artificial.. We tried "alpine way" chairlift.. the top of the alpine pass, indeed showed eastern as well as southern smokies range.. it was completely hazy on top of mountains.. sun was under clouds.. and it created yellow streaks of sunlight on the mountains.. probabaly as name suggests, it was the blue haziness on those moutains.. mountain slopes were too dark/hazy to take any clear picture or observe thru binoculars.. it was really cold up there.. probably around 23F..

Bought tram drive-thru pictures. Coming down from apline pass and then to gatlinberg almost ticked 11:30am.. lunch at flapjack's added an hour.. in flapjack, the water glass shapes were weird..like "baranee"

It was almost 1pm when we entererd smokies NP at Sugarlands visitor center. consideting 4 hrs to sunset, no hike would have been possible.. so only drive thru "Cedar coves" and "Newfound gap" was feasible.. The ranger mentioned that cedar coves roundtrip trail, 24miles one way itself will take around 4.5 hrs.. I just didn't believe him.. but his judgement was almost right.. it took us 4hrs to finish it.. Smokies NP is huge..

The drive to "Cedar cove" is across "little river".. the river was really small and flowing in same direction.. the path was torturous for around 8 miles.. the destination at cedar coves displayed vast fields, open areas and smokies mountain range.. we were sort of in the valley.. the valley has cabins and church buildings from 1860s European settlements, who took over native Cherokee reservations,.. there wasn't a simple glimpse of indian heritage left there.. but whole cedar groves was under heavy traffic to see those old European cabins and churches.. when i went inside "primitive first baptist church", i didn't find anything interesting.. Its not old at all..its completely renovated and probably older desk is displayed.. at back, there was a cemetery of people dead in 19th and 20th century.. infact..one of the graves was built in 2005.. also there were lot of graves of young kids from 2 year old to 6 month old.. i was indeed surpised..

On that drive, we also encountered wild life.. lot of deers.. also some horses (wild life??)

Again, as i mentioned previously, it seems like the concept of "interesting history" is completely messed up here.. Anything older than probably 50 years is a heritage in usa.. and everybody showcases it as "the best thing" on the planet.. means, instead of enjoying the nature within Smokies, tourist were busy visiting so-called-historical buildings or horses.. In Albq NM, when we visited a local church building, it was completely renovated from its 1897 establishment.. In san antonio, Alamo and similar missions are probably way too older than these Cabins/Churches in Smokies, but nobody porbably knows abt San Antonio missions.. there were around 10-15 people in those missions as compared to thousands in Smokies Cedar-Grove church... Definition of "historical" places, is completely mistaken or probably "commercialized"..

I wish if i would have got a chance to camp in Cedar groves.. The place is so beautiful and bountiful that native reservations were wise enough to stay there for their whole lifetime..


It was almost 4:30pm when we came back to visitor center.. and clock indeed started ticking fast..

"Caedar valley" gave the glimpse of valley and riverside views.. but "Newfound gap drive" goes to top of the mountain range and shows complete view of smokies vast mountain ranges.. It gave the real feeling of Smokies.. Drive towards "Newfound gap" was indeed torturous and way too adventurous..and inorder to reach there before sunset, the drive indeed really fast and way above speed limit :) !! At the top, It was crazily windy around 23F.. The "manor overlook (??)" showed western smokies ranges, while the "newfound gap overlook" showed northern-eastern ranges.. THE BEST view of smokies.. just unlimited range of mountains on the horizon.. I was spellbound with that view and binoculars indeed enhanced the vision.. Our forward jounrey US-411 drive was also visible.. and that seemed to be another torturous down-slope and thats also gonna be in dark :).. It was too windy to stay up there for more than 15mins.. I am glad that we made it during day light..

North Carolina and Tennessee border is exactly at "Newfound gap overlook".. Entered NC around 5:30pm EST

On the way down, "Webb overlook" gave marvellous views of Southern Smokies range.. It was yet-another THE BEST viewpoint for the day.. Its not only just mountain ranges, but the sunset dusk light created magic.. after the sunset, sky was all red and yellowish.. and vast southern smokies range was unending on horizon.. God Picasso's paint-brush was producing new posters every now and then .. Our perfect timing made the whole experience to be the "Inspiration point" like Bryce canyon.. Thru binocs was able to capture lot of details.. the village of Cherokee was clearly visible.. Truly inspiring experience..

The drive forward within Smokies, then thru Cherokee village and then towards Atlanta was unbelievably tiring.. I was operating manually.. brain was completely shutoff.. but we really wanted to reach Atlanta for 31st night..

Crossed NC-Georgia state line around 7pm EST.. Reached Atlanta around 9:30pm EST

Atlanta, Motel 6 assistant was really helpful and gave recommendations abt visiting down-town to witness peach-ball drop of 31st.. He also mentioned that ~100,000 people will show up there. considering parking hassle, he also suggested to use local rail-transit MARTA.. Luckily, train station was within ocuple of miles from our motel... When we reached to downtown, I was shocked to see so many people.. Its like "Ganapati-Visrjan-Mirawanuk" in Pune.. so many african-american people at the same time.. specifically, with that "distinctive" accent.. After observing people around me, the way they were behaving, moving, talking/yelling, it seemed like real blue-collar people.. before midnight, usual drunken brawls and yelling was taking place every now and then.. Peach-ball drop was from 500ft tower and we had a side view.. there was a small conert going on.. but considering "discussions" and heavy hassle around us, concert was just in-audible.. Also, coca-cola screen was displaying ~32F and too windy.. but probably because of such a huge crowd, i wasnt feeling any cold winter.. THe 00:00am event of 31st night was marked my huge fireworks and ball drop.. but it got over within few mins.. Also we didn't realize the precise 00:00 moment :) as we didn;t see any counters nearby. because of side-view ?


Return journey was another beast.. Thousands of people getting into small train station, at the same time, created usual hue & cry..

Again, Denny's late night dinner and an un-necassary hour delay in delivering the food, completely knocked us out.. Total 20 hrs day finally ended.. Good night !!

Today's Drive; ~300 miles
States: TN, NC, GA

Total Miles: 3400 miles in nine days
Total States (13) : CA, NV, UT, AZ, CO, NM, TX, OK, AK, MS, TN, NC, GA