Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail and Cades Cove

Day 4- November 3, 2015 (Great Lakes Region Trip)

Robin had a hard time sleeping. The mirrored panels were hung with little circular buttons. She just knew there were cameras in them, so she was looking for the little red lights all night. Dean slept like a baby. Go figure!

After leaving the room for the day, we headed to the Log Cabin Pancake House. It is another one of our favorites for breakfast. The food is good, but the atmosphere is even better with all of the college flags hanging from the ceiling.

Next, we drove through the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail. We had been coming to Gatlinburg for years and never knew about this hidden gem. It is a one-way road, for the most part, which winds through the woods around some historic places, streams, and picnic areas. 

Once we left the trail, we drove back into Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Our first stop was at the Sugarland Visitor Center. We looked around watched the movie, and then checked out the bookstore.

From there, we drove to the western side of the Park to Cades Cove. The drive there was very scenic as the road ran along a stream in many places. The fall colors were again very visible.

We arrived at Cades Cove and drove the one-way auto trail through the area. It was bumper to bumper the whole way around the 11 mile loop. On our drive, we saw a flock of wild turkeys and a black blob in the distance. The black blob was supposedly a black bear cub, but it never moved the whole time we parked and watched. Some of the other people had high powered binoculars or cameras and insisted it really was a bear cub. We drove on and stopped at the Cades Cove Visitor Center and looked around. 

Disappointed that we hadn't seen more animals, we decided to leave Cades Cove and drive in to the town of Townsend and go to their Visitor Center. We would come back to Cades Cove closer to dusk. We had learned from our previous trips that animals seem to come out early in the morning or around dusk. Since "early in the morning" is not in our vocabulary, we usually aim for dusk. 

The Townsend Visitor Center had a lot to offer. The exhibits were different than we had seen at other visitor centers and the bookstore was much larger. 

After we had explored the Visitor Center, we headed back to Cades Cove. We had a little more luck finding animals, but not as much as we have had in the past. We did see a big flock of wild turkey, a coyote, the same black blob "bear," some pretty horses, and 2 different sets of deer.

Once we left Cades Cove, we drove back through Gatlinburg and into Pigeon Forge. We ate at Longhorn Steakhouse before heading back to our hotel. This time we had no trouble going to sleep. We were really tired.