Heading toward chillier weather - Day 4

We decided last night to explore Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

Excellent day for driving. I love North Carolina's median plantings!!

We entered the park at Cherokee and immediately toured the Mountain Farm Museum and Oconaluftee Visitor Center. Very interesting. Jean would be tickled to see the chickens roaming the grounds, true free range birds. The cabin was rude but held a hanging quilt frame which was fascinating. (Though the interior was too dark to photo well.)

 The buggy was very cool, though I am very, very glad I did not have to travel the region's roads in it!


We walked part of  the Oconaluftee River Trail. The river is beautiful and we saw a bit of leaf color.

The path was so root-bound and uneven I was not surprised to see the posted warning signs as I would have bumped into an animal because I was looking where to put my feet.


 We ate our picnic lunch at a campsite with almost no one else there, listening to the wind blowing through the trees and birds chirping.

Then Rhoda drove up a twisty mountain road to Clingmans Dome. The scenery was gorgeous, UNTIL we got to the Dome.

 We called it a day and headed back down the mountain to Persimmon Creek. Rhoda pulled off so I could get a snap of a bit of history, which is just before the turn to the cabin road.