On the Other Side of the Mountains

We saw this elk along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

 On our trip we saw two wild animals.  The first was a small black bear high in a tree above a street leading into the forest from Gatlinburg.

Traffic stopped in both directions as a photographer (not me) got out to take shots into the tree.  The bear wasn't moving, I don't know if it was sleeping or trying to fade into the background.

As we drove over the Appalachians, passing Clingman's Dome, we headed down the other side.

We bought our parking pass the day before, so we didn't have to wait for a visitor center to open and had the road and much of the park to ourselves.

From an overlook on the Newfound Gap Road

 Several parking lots for popular hiking trails were full but it was a quiet time of day otherwise.  

 After we went over the Newfound Gap into North Carolina, we were in new territory.

 

 Newfound Gap Road is the only route that takes visitors through the middle of the park.  We stopped at several places on the way down to admire thousands of acres of forest before us.

 Our destination was Asheville, North Carolina.  At the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Welcome Center, we saw several elk grazing, then turned on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

One of several tunnels along our stretch of road.

We didn't know at the time but the Parkway is the longest linear park in the country following the Blue
Ridge Mountains 469 miles in the Appalachians from where we joined it to the start in Waynesboro, Virginia.  

 

The road and the surrounding green is the point of the road; it connects to Interstate highways through other connecting roads.  The journey is the point.

We encountered the elk (above photo) as we crested a hill.  The creature was grazing.  The speed limit is 45 and we were much slower than that, so we were able to stop 15-feet away and watch.  The elk wasn't bothered, after a few pictures we wished it good morning.

Look at far mountain for lookout tower.

 Blue Ridge Parkway was built during the Franklin Roosevelt administration with several of the job-creation programs chipping in to provide workers.

 

 There was controversy.  Local farmers and land-owners lost some of their land and needed permission to make changes.  The Cherokee Nation pushed for better terms on highway development before agreeing with the project.

 

 If you look up Blue Ridge Parkway online, its Wikipedia page highlights stops in Virginia and North Carolina.  It would be a fascinating trip on its own.

 

All photos 7/13/2023 by David Mossner.

 

An elk eating grass.      Note below the sunshine hitting ridges of land.

 

We were blessed to see the sun that morning, it was cloudy on the Tennessee side.