Stones River Battlefield is a fixture in Murfreesboro that can get ignored by residents because it has just been there so long. The national park has significantly updated its facilities and improved the driving routes in general though in the past years. On any given day you can see plenty of Murfreesboro natives using the battlefield for walking or jogging purposes. The park has actively made a lane for bicycles and walkers on their driving roads and part of the trails connect to the Murfreesboro Greenway. The visitors center has a small, nice museum about the battle and nice bathrooms. They also offer quite a few programs such as re-enactments, bicycle tours, and the very popular lantern tours.
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Probably the best early spring wildflower hike in the Smokies is Chestnut Top. Elkmont and Greenbriar have decent wildflowers later in spring, but if you're in the park in late March/ early April, your best bet is the Townsend area. Chestnut Top is located across the road from the Townsend/ Wye parking area where there is a small gravel beach. The hike heads straight up to a surprisingly good overlook of Townsend. The beginning part of the hike is difficult as it goes straight up the side of the mountain. This is also the part with the best wildflowers so you'll see plenty of little old ladies hiking up a trail you normally wouldn't expect them on. But there are a lot of flowers. Trillium, bishop's cap, violets, spring beauties, and all kinds of mountain wildflowers. Once you reach the summit of the hill the trail goes along the ride and is only moderate in difficulty. It's the beginning half mile that is straight up. The trail is well worth it though.
Cades Cove is one of the driving tours featured in the Smoky Mountains. It makes a loop through the valley that some farming families lived in and includes a visitor center and a restored farm at the middle point of the loop. There are also many cabins along this route so expect people to drive very slowly and stop often. Plan on having a full tank of gas before doing the driving tour. There are a lot of bears in the area and those cause bear jams on the road that can last for hours, particularly since the road is one way and there are very few cut throughs to make it shorter. Don't expect to do the drive in anything less than half a day. And in the summer expect your car to get hot. Frankly we avoid driving the cove in the summer. This time of year isn't as bad as it can get in the summer, but it's still time consuming. Basically the drive is nice and something you want to do if you're vacationing in the area, but be aware that it's not quick.
Elkmont is one of the areas in the Smoky Mountains known for wildflowers. The Little River Trail is an easy walk that follows the river and Goshen Prong veers off from it at the 7 mile mark, but follows the river. Huskey Branch Falls is a nice resting point at about 2.5 miles. When there's a lot of water the falls is much better looking. Any way around it, it's not a typical waterfall that people would hike to. If you keep going Cucumber Gap trail will veer to the right and later Goshen Prong will follow the river to the right. Goshen Prong is not heavily used. Most people hiking it are headed to one of the over night sites it is connected to. There is quite a bit of picturesque river and meadow scenery on along the trail. One of the more interesting features at Elkmont is Daisy City, the abandoned semi ruins of a vacation town that used to be in the Smokies. Many of the cabins have been torn down. There used to be a large amount more in the area but the park service has started demolishing some of the most derelict ones and slowly fixing up some of the ones that weren't in too bad of shape. The cabins are a hodge podge of styles and you can walk through them as semi ruins at the moment. The park is clearly intending to fix some of them as historical sites and many of the people who stop at Elkmont stroll through the old buildings.
Dollywood is known for a lot of seasonal events and spring is always the time for the Festival of Nations, when acts from around the world are brought in to entertain guests. There is plenty of different foods from other countries and a variety of music. There's generally always a Celtic/Irish group of some kind. This year the Invaders Steel Orchestra was back and there were new acts from Spain, Russia, Ecuador, Switzerland, Mongolia, and South Africa. Previous years have seen acts from Argentina, France, Romania, Africa, and Canada. There isn't just music, but many of the acts are dance or other performance types. The Flamenco Kings from Spain were a new act this year that involved a lot of high intensity dance. There was also a stunning dance group from Siberia. For kids who generally aren't interested in the musical performances at Dollywood (and there aren't always a lot of musical performances I like at Dollywood on the regular), the Festival of Nations has such a wide variety of high interest performances you might just have children skipping some of the rides to watch some of them.
The Great Smoky Mountains has many well known trails and sights, but at this point in my hiking career it's the lesser known trails I'm interested in. In the Greenbriar area of the park, which is lesser known anyway other than for Ramsey Cascades, Old Settlers Trail plunges off fairly remote. There's no particular landmark you're hiking to, but there are plenty of streams to ford and the trail is less trafficked than many others. We only saw two other people in a whole day of hiking. The Greenbriar area is commonly used by kayakers in the spring when the water is high. There is enough water on Old Settlers Trail to make walking sticks necessary. There are no foot bridges. You either have to wade or balance on rocks. The area is lovely though and Greenbriar is known for wildflowers in mid-spring. It's a good hike for just hiking. Don't expect to get to a spectacular over look or waterfall. You'll see a lot of streams and get your feet wet but you'll feel like a real hiker.
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AuthorA librarian who likes to travel and experience life. CategoriesArchives
June 2022
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