Fall 2016 Road Trip – Smoky Mountains NP, Cades Cove

Fall 2016 - It's early November 2016 and we decided to take a road trip. We knew our farthest point, Panama City, FL where we would watch the Blue Angels homecoming show, the last show of the year. On the way, we were hoping to see some late fall colors so we would meander toward the Smokey Mountain National Park to see what we could see.

As normal, our exact route is up in that air. We prefer the stay off the interstates and discovering small town America. On this trip, we have a few days to get the Panama City so we decided to jump on I-75 and hightail it to Knoxville then travel state and county roads over to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

While still north of Knoxville and on I-75, we passed a number of forest fires that are dotting the area. The summer and fall of 2016 had been unusually dry. The drought provided a perfect situation for fires. Since we were driving on I-75, we couldn't get photos but some of the fires were amazingly close to the highway. Only a week or so after we were in this area, major fires destroyed many 10,000 acres of forest. There was loss of life and many towns were impacted including Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge.

From Knoxville, we drove east to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Even though we missed the peak fall color season, there was lingering leaves that provided us nice views.

Cades Cove
About a hundred years ago, a valley was settled in the western Smoky Mountain range. The area became home to around 100 settlers and named Cades Cove and is the most visited area within the national park. The is an eleven mile drive that passes near a number of the original farmsteads and churches.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Road to Cades Cove – still some nice color

John Oliver cabin - 1st cabin built in Cades Cove (1823)

John Oliver cabin

Cades Cove Primitive Baptist Church

Interior of Baptist Church

Barn

The settlers were great builders with hand hewn logs.

They made the wooden hinges.

Grist mill

The eleven mile road road circles the valley below and features many of the early homes and churches. We have not been here in the summer but it looks like there are crops grown like they were 100 years ago. While driving, it's possible to see wildlife such as deer, wild turkeys and more.

Fields with great views of the mountains.

Cases Cove takes us back in time. The homes, barns and buildings are open so visitors can go inside and browse around. There are also a few pieces of machinery to view.  We spent a few hours at Cades Cove on this chilly day but on a nice day, visitors could wander an entire day through the area.

Near the entrance of Cades Cove, there is a general store and an RV campground. We have this area on our list to check out another time.

Alaska – Trip Recap

This is how we got there...and back

Whew, calling this an amazing trip would be an understatement. It's easy to say"we went to Alaska" but the places we visited and things we saw is much longer is lengthy indeed. The map above is the route we took from Ohio to Alaska and back to Ohio again. If you've read through the post, you already know our travels took us across, the northern U.S. and across 2,000 miles of western Canada just to get to Alaska. We saw waterfalls, mountains and valleys, glaciers and a lot of wildlife along the way. We try to remember the trip begins when we leave home and not when we get to our destination.

Here is a look at the numbers.

Days traveled - 53
Miles driven - 11,299 (7,178 in the U.S. - 4,121 in Canada)
Gasoline - 805 gallons*
Miles per gallon - 14.0**
Cost of gas - $2318.40***  (Ave per gallon in U.S. = $2.49. Ave per gallon in Canada - $3.40)
Oil change - $35.43 (Fairbanks, AK
Camping - 11 nights in campgrounds, 43 nights boondocking, 0 nights in motels.
Camping cost - $167.44
Groceries - $187.82 (doesn't count full fridge and cupboards when we left home)
Eating out - $150.69
Misc. tours and souvenirs - $1,120.31

Total cost of trip - $4000.09

*     Includes approximately 12 gallons used by running the generator.
**   We normally average 15+ MPG but mountains, head winds and generator use reduced MPG.
*** Average Canadian cost includes the 3% out of country charge by Visa and MasterCard.

Three items that were broken on the trip are not included.
1. Side door catch that was broken when high winds caught to door.
2. Broken elbow in fresh water line. The new elbow was only $1.00 and an hour of my labor.
3. Most costly...the windshield took three hits so it will have to be replaced.

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We are asked how many miles we would drive per day. We averaged 213 but that's deceptive since we would travel long distances some days and almost none on others. Here is a chart of daily miles.

Miles traveled per day

Mingling with the Yoopers

Just because we are getting close to home, that doesn't mean our adventure has to end. Michigan's Upper Peninsula is a treasure trove of things to see so our route would continue across Hwy 2 and we would see what adventures we could find.

We entered the land of the Yoopers and decided to mill around a bit. You say, what is a Yooper? Well, Michigan has a lower peninsula that is mitten shaped and an upper peninsula shaped like a running rabbit. Check out the map below. See the mitten? How about the running rabbit? The mitten is easy but if you are having trouble with the rabbit, the nose is on the far left. See it now?

The two peninsulas are connected by the Mackinac Bridge (pronounced Mack-in-aw) Michiganders simply refer to the upper peninsula and the U.P. – thus the name Yoopers. I think, to be any true Yooper, one had to be born and raised there but it's a proud group so many residents will call themselves Yoopers even if they moved north later in life. And one more piece of trivia – those who live below the Mackinac Bridge are known as trolls. Ok, now you know...

We checked the Allstays app on our smartphone and found the Wanoka Campground in the Chequamegon National Forest just a couple miles from the highway. It was a great find with a campsite beside a small lake and it was only $6.00 since we took advantage of our national senior pass.

Our stay at Wanoka CG was so good that we decided to give the Black River Forest Campground a try. It's on the Lake Superior shoreline and has a number of waterfalls nearby. But, like often happens, we were side-tracked when we saw this oversized Story Kromer hat in Ironwood, Michigan.

I'm sure most folks have never heard of Stormy Kromer hats but any outdoorsman (or women) in Michigan and surrounding states know about them. Here is their story. The Stormy Kromer Story

We visited the factory outlet store and shopped for the perfect one.

So after the short detour, we found our way to

There are great hiking trains with waterfalls and Lake Superior.

There are a total of five falls and just plain cool things to see just a couple miles up the road. There could be many, many photos but here are just a few.

While traveling the Lake Superior coastline, the Picture Rocks National Lakeshore near Munising, Michigan is a must see adventure. A fairly short boat ride takes visitors to sections of colorful sandstone cliffs that overlook Lake Superior. The colors come from different ores such as iron, copper, manganese and others that are in the soil. Here are a few photos taken during our visit.

Tour boat

Cave formed by eroded sand stone

Colorful sand stone cliffs

Tree that is sustained by a single root the goes to the shore

Boat anchored in cove

Historic lighthouse

Well...darn! It's time to continue east. I'm sure all travelers have a certain landmark that seems to say "you are getting close to home". For us, it's the Mackinac Bridge which links the Michigan's upper and lower peninsula's and I-75, our final road home.

The Mackinac Bridge

Crossing the Mighty Mac

We are still a few hundred miles from our driveway in Ohio but we have grown used to driving near mountains...and wide open spaces...and no traffic. Once we hit I-75 there will certainly be no mountains and the wide open spaces will be replaced with flat countryside with lots of homes, and other buildings. And the NO TRAFFIC part??? Well, say goodby to that, it's all 4-lane interstate for the last couple hundred miles.

Highway 2 to Theadore Roosevelt National Park

US Highway 2 is one of the "old" roads. Similar to US Hwy 30 or the famous Route 66, Highway 2 is mostly two lane and winds through towns and villages alone the northern tier of states. There is a small section in the New England states but there is a long stretch that runs between Michigan's Upper Peninsula and the Washington coastline.

US Highway 2 in Montana

Some would think Hwy 2 is a boring drive but we enjoy traveling through farm country and not battling interstate traffic. This is harvest time and the combines are going full tilt.

Harvesting peas

Wheat harvest in Montana

OK, here's my version of art.

Of course, there are rocky areas where crops like wheat and peas don't grow well so hay and livestock are a better choices.

And then, there are some real surprises. We spied a small lake with pelicans. Pelicans? Yup, We had no idea we could find pelicans this far north but that's the beauty of driving on Hwy 2 instead of the interstate.

Carolyn checked the map as we were headed eastbound on US Highway 2 and noticed Theadore Roosevelt National Park was not too far south of our route. Since we were still not pressed for time, we decided to take a detour. Our new route would take us a bit south.

We were heading eastbound and enjoying the scenery.  Carolyn was checking the map and said, " you know, we will be close to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park". We had visited this park in 2015 and enjoyed it very much – we still had plenty of time to make it home before our mid August timeline so decided why not see this fun park again?

The area around the Theadore Roosevelt National Park is pretty remote but energy has changed some of the solitude. In fact, Watford City that is only 15 miles north of TR NP is considered by many to be the center of the oil boom that began in the early 2000's. But nearby, there are also a few electricity generating windmills. I hope both forms of energy are successful. 

Theadore Roosevelt National Park has two units in western North Dakota. The southern unit is near Medora, ND. The northern unit was the original Elkhorn Ranch established by Teddy R. in 1884 and lies about 35 miles north of Medora.

Theadore Roosevelt National Park - North Unit

The Theadore Roosevelt National Park has a southern unit near Medora, ND and a much smaller northern unit about 35 mile north. This is not a touristy national park. You probably won't find huge traffic backups but the 14 mile scenic drive through the park is like a micro version of the Badlands to forested area. An unusual feature are the the sandstone cliffs with the large concretions nicknamed "cannonballs". They are quite spectacular and formed by deposits of minerals around a sandstone core. They are exposed by natural erosion of the sandstone and eventually fall to the area below. 

Concretions being exposed through erosion

A "cannonball" that rolled to the area below.

There are views of the Little Missouri River...

Civilian Conservation Corps shelter overlooking the Little Missouri River

and views of blue colored Bentonitic Clay...

We were also fortunate to see a lot of wildlife.We arrived at the park around 6pm, a perfect time to see critters out for their evening stroll. Just a couple miles from the entrance, we saw several longhorn steers from the small herd that is maintained in the park. Then we spied this mule deer and two fawns in a wooded area. Another mile up the road, we saw a number of bison. We stopped to take photos as they moved. Soon, the herd was in front of us and blocking the entrance to our campground. We patiently watch until they cleared the road and allowed us to reach our camp site.

The bison were in rut (that's when the guys are looking for the ladies). There were low "growls" from the males and it was not hard to figure out the dominant bulls. We were getting situated in our camp site when the herd made their way to some trees a couple hundred yards from us. I grabbed my camera and headed toward them. I was about 75 yards from them and standing beside the restroom incase I needed a safe space when all hell broke loose between two of the big bulls. The video below is raw footage as I shot it. Holy Toledo, it was intense!!!

Click on this link

Bison bulls in rut at Theadore Roosevelt NP

We were also fortunate to get a heads up from a Park Ranger that the Bighorn sheep were spotted near Long-X pull off. We quickly headed there and were rewarded with a rare glimpse of a dozen or so Bighorn sheep.