Scenic Drive through the Little Smoky Mountains

I’ve decided I won’t be doing much hiking for a while. I missed a couple of weeks because it kept raining, but the main thing is the heat! I was originally going to hike this week along the Angel Falls Rapids trail – now that the river level is back down! – but I checked the weather forecast and saw that it was going to be 80°F when I started! That’s not even including the heat index, which I do need to consider, because it is HUMID here. This week especially it’s been absolutely steamy out. I know perfectly well I would be overheated and miserable and not enjoy myself, and I would not WANT to hike four miles, especially on a day when even getting up early would make no difference!

Okay, apparently I am feeling a little defensive about this. Let’s just say that most of the hiking will be put on hold until it’s getting into fall.  

So, today I went for a long scenic drive in place of a hike. I drove out to the west side of the park, then drove up north on 154. This is the way we went that first time out to Twin Arches, when we missed the turn and kept going. I remember thinking at the time – as we realized we needed to turn around! – that it was a very pretty drive. I continued up and around, driving northeast into Daniel Boone National Forest, which borders Big South Fork to the north. It was a gravel road but in good condition, with just a few potholes, not surprising considering the torrential rains we had last week!  

There were flowers all along the road, and after a few minutes I had a revelation – I should stop and take pictures of them! I hadn’t seen any cars even before I turned onto the gravel road, and didn’t expect to see any now. I was driving slowly anyway, because of the gravel and the winding nature of the road, and so I was able to stop whenever I spotted a flower or a view that needed to be captured. I had the air conditioner on, but not all the way cold so that it wouldn’t be as hard getting out to take pictures. (Also if it was too cold my glasses would fog up. That’s how humid it is!) 

The roads were lined with little yellow flowers - Brown-Eyed-Susans, I think.

Also a lot of Queen Anne's Lace.

Someone's been nibbling...

I had to back up for this one. Rose Pink or Rose Gentian.

Wild Potato Vine. Or Wild Sweet Potato. A member of the Morning Glory family!

This half-open Queen Anne's Lace is like a little basket!

Butterfly Weed. Obviously.

These are on a lot of the trees around here - tent caterpillars, what I always used to call "webworms". It's a colony of caterpillars that make a communal nest. It doesn't necessarily hurt the tree, just kills the leaves of one branch. Nature isn't always pretty. The caterpillars turn into some type of moth eventually.

I could tell I was on a bit of a ridge, because I could see the land sloping down in between the trees.

I didn’t realize how much I’d been climbing until I got to a cleared overlook. What a view! I don’t take many pictures with my phone because it’s not a smartphone, but I took one of that view and sent it to my family, calling it the “Little Smoky Mountains”. 

You can tell this is a plateau - all the hills are completely identical in height.

Just enough for a taste...

Here's where I start to have trouble. There are approximately a gazillion or so nearly identical yellow flowers with radial petals, and my pictures are not detailed enough to tell them apart for sure. So I'll just say, "pretty!"

Another overlook.

Someone likes to sit on that rail and eat acorns.

There was a side road I was watching for, going out to a place called “Great Meadows” campground. I thought maybe there was a natural meadow down in the valley, like the “coves” in the Great Smoky Mountains. It was definitely a change of scene – pretty quickly I was driving along a stream, and there were different flowers. There were signs that warned it was a flash flood area, and I could see that the road had been graded recently. VERY recently! I came around a curve and there was a big tractor heading my way! Fortunately I was able to pass without any trouble.  

The road followed the stream most of the way, but there weren’t many places to get down to the water. 

I pulled off for a minute at a side road and walked down to a low-water bridge.

Looking downstream.

Straight across!

Looking upstream!

Looking down! There was a very pretty damselfly that would not stay still, but I like this scene even without the obligatory insect.

View from the road.

There were an unbelievable number of butterflies along the road. Mostly these big yellow swallowtails. All the fluttering made it look almost like autumn leaves falling.

Somewhere along here was one of the most exciting moments of the day. I saw something run across the road up ahead! I slowed down, rolling down the passenger-side window, and stopped where I thought it had run into the woods… and looked into the eyes of a fox kit! It backed off further into the woods, but paused again to look back at me, so I got a relatively good look, even if I didn’t get the camera on it in time. PUPPY!!! I hope the poor thing hadn’t been overrun by that tractor… It wasn’t a baby, but still very young, and I didn’t see any others. Of course, I wouldn’t have seen this one if it didn’t cut across the road. It’s funny to realize how much you don’t know is going on out there…

Somewhere out there is a traumatized fox kit.

Great Meadows Campground was a nice open grassy area… that had just been mowed. I don’t think it’s really a natural meadow – certainly not a big open one, although it’s the kind of stream that could be dammed up by beavers and then later released to form a meadow where the pond used to be. Oh, well. It certainly looked like a very nice campground, if you don’t mind driving a while to get to it – I bet it’s never crowded.

Wild Ageratum, or Blue Mistflower.

Ironweed!

One thing that caught my eye when I stopped to take a picture of some flowers was some southern cane growing back in the woods. I got ridiculously excited about it. I’ve seen some growing in southeast Missouri, but only bits here and there – it’s mostly been wiped out. And I grew up listening to country songs talking about fishing with a cane pole…  I keep getting little thrills when I realize I’m seeing something that I only know from songs!

Horsetails! The branching kind, not the long straight kind.

On my way back out I planned to stop at the Hemlock Grove picnic area, which I had noticed was right near the stream. I wanted to get down to the water, and maybe even eat lunch there. Unfortunately, I got there right behind a crew of mowers! There were two riding mowers and several other people with weed whackers… So much for a quiet stop! What are the odds…? I did walk down to the water for a few minutes. I might have stayed longer but I realized my camera was flashing “low battery” and I was really frustrated to think that the pictures I had just taken might not turn out! Luckily they did.

This looked like it had been flooded fairly recently.

I'm pretty sure this is a type of phlox.

Gravel. Nice smooth bits of quartz.

This is where the gravel came from!

There was a huge cluster of butterflies at a wet spot on the gravel bar. I took pictures zoomed in, then tried to get closer but more and more kept flying away. It was amazing to see so many gathered in one tiny area.

As I drove back out I stopped at one other spot and walked down to the water. It was shady  The stream was backed up behind a natural dam – I could just see where it started to flow faster again. The calm stretch had minnows swimming in a patch of sunlight.

Ripple marks in the sand. This was a few feet above where the water was.

This tree has fallen but been propped up at several places, so it is still alive!

I ended up back at that low-water bridge. It had gotten cloudy again, so I got my chair out of the trunk and just sat on the bridge to eat my sandwich. It was really nice – the water was calm on one side of the bridge, but still flowing fast over the top, with a noisy rushing riffle as it flowed away downstream. I spotted a few minnows and water striders, and a pair of damselflies circling but never stopping long enough to take a picture.

The sun came out again after about five minutes, and it was too hot, so I cut the picnic short, but it was nice while it lasted.

Once I got back on the main road, I didn’t stop much. It was getting hotter now that the sun was staying out. I was enjoying the drive – it kept going up and around and back down and around. It really was nice to get back to asphalt, though – and even then it was a very twisty road so I had to take it very slow!  

I was a little nervous about finding my way out on the eastern side, but I didn’t have any trouble. I crossed the Big South Fork River on the Yamacraw Bridge, north of the Blue Heron area. Once I got to highway 27 it was a fairly straight shot back to Oneida. You don’t appreciate being able to see far down the road until you drive the roads around here… 

I had one more stop, at a produce stand in Pine Knot, about 13 miles from Oneida. Fresh tomatoes, peaches and a cucumber! By the time I got back to where I’d started, I’d driven almost exactly 85 miles. And seen I don’t know how many butterflies. And a million flowers. And a FOX PUPPY. Not a bad day!