Great Smoky Mountains Review

 Maybe I have been naive growing up in the Detroit area and not being around popular National Parks. Friends and I went up to do this driving trail that had some stops along the way to do some hiking.  Before we even got to the road, the parking was crazy.  Peopled parked all over.  Find out the road is closed, so we thought we would pull over and just walk a little, again parking was near to impossible.  

Later that night when I was doing some research because I was going to do some solo hiking the next day, I found out that there is a parking charge if you are going to park for more than 15 minutes.  You can get day passes from some visitor stations around the park.  So I set to get there when they open to get my pass and head up to where I wanted to go for a day hike.  Well by the time I got to where I wanted to go, Parking was crazy and the roads are one-way so you have to do a whole loop to get back to the start of the parking area.  Cars were parked illegally and noticed many if not most didn't have a pass either.  

I found a spot by a pretty flat trail, did that for a bit, and was upset that I didn't get the experience of hard hiking that I wanted.  So I left and started driving out of town to another trailhead thinking maybe since it was close to downtown that is why it was crazy.  The next trailhead was just as bad with no parking, so I started to drive up the mountain.  EVERY TRAILHEAD WAS PACKED!  Cars parking on the side of the road in-between signs that say no parking on side of the street. 

I continued my way up and up, passing trailheads packed beyond belief.  I got to  Rockefeller Memorial at Newfound Gap I saw 1 parking space open so I took it.  I couldn't believe that I was 5,000 feet above sea level and there were a few hundred cars in the parking lot.  What I didn't know when I parked was, this was part of the Appalachian  Trail.  As soon as I saw that, I took off on it to get some good hiking in.  The ticked-off feeling about the parking and cars everywhere soon faded away.  The sights were unbelievable.  The hike was moderate and tricky in some spots.  Although I only spend a few hours on the trail, it was well worth it.