More Fun in the Smoky Mountains

This is the second chapter in the story of our October vacation. Part I is here.

Saturday 
Morning dawned sunny and clear, and the Smoky Mountain Twitter feed said the road to Clingman's Dome was open, so we made a beeline for the top of the mountain. This dome is said to be the highest point in Tennessee at 6,643 feet, but some maps show that it's actually in North Carolina. We asked in the gift shop which state we were in, and they said they were charging NC sales tax. So if tax law determines geography, we briefly visited North Carolina!

Since we were being early birds, we actually got a space in the parking lot. (Seriously, the park got insanely crowded later in the day.) We made the steep .5 mile climb up to the tower and enjoyed spectacular views along the way.

 Mulberry trees

We briefly intersected with the Appalachian Trail!

 The observation platform, accessed by a long, circular/winding ramp

The trees that are dead were attacked by beetles.

After that trek, we stopped at a few more scenic pullouts and then had a snack overlooking a valley.

 The pointy mountains on the left are called "The Chimneys" because when the fog rises, it looks like smoke coming out of chimneys.

Some of the mountainsides looked like patchwork quilts of color!

Back in Gatlinburg, we'd had enough Southern food so did Chinese for lunch instead. Then it was time for more free samples of alcohol, this time at Davy Crockett's Whiskey/Gatlinburg Barrelhouse. DF wanted to get a bottle of one that tasted like Kahlua, but it cost $30 and we decided we could just get real Kahlua for less if we wanted it.

Another random bluegrass band!

Now that we were fully embracing our role as tourists, we had to ride the Sky Lift up to the top of the mountains for another view of the area. They sell an unlimited daily ride ticket for $4 more than the price of one ride. I don't know why you'd want to keep going up and down all day...unless you wanted to try a bunch of different mind-altering substances to see which one enhanced your experience the most or something. For the record, we just took 1 ride.

We took an afternoon reading break (well, I read while DF went to an arcade and played an HD deer hunting game) and then it was time for dinner at the Smoky Mountain Brewery. There was a long wait for dinner so we entertained ourselves by wandering around the shops. We had an strange/interesting conversation with the proprietor of a jerky store about the role of government.

Once we finally got a table for dinner, the food was delicious. Everyone should try a smoked cheddar-bacon-BBQ sauce burger, even if you have to take a Lactaid to enjoy it! Sorry, forgot to snap any photos of the food. Their beer was not my style. The pumpkin ale smelled like a pumpkin-pie-scented air freshener and tasted both spicy and bland at the same time. At least the food was good.

There are still 2 more days of vacation left to chronicle!