Great Smoky Mountains NP Part 3

20 August 2013

Today we drove the Cades Cove Loop, a longer one-way scenic drive through forests and meadows. People of European descent settled in the area roughly between 1820 and 1920, with a maximum population of 280 farming families at one point. The population dwindled as the states of Tennessee and North Carolina purchased their properties for the purpose of creating Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A number of family cabins and churches remain and can be visited.

Oliver Cabin

Gorgeous view from the Oliver Cabin

Our second sighting of a black bear

The Primitive Baptist Church

Luckily for us, we made three more black bear sightings, all in the Cades Cove area. The best of the sightings was a large juvenile in a tree. The assembled crowd got to watch that bear climb quickly down the tree trunk and as he did we all dashed back over a low fence and to our cars. Only the slowest guy got eaten.

Besides many cabins along the route, we thought the highlights of Cades Cove were the old mill in operation at the Cades Cove Visitors Center, and the Primitive Baptist Church, where a park volunteer told us about the beliefs of the Primitive Baptists. The sect, still in existence, believes in predestination, literal interpretation of the King James Bible, and “holding people accountable.” They do not believe in missions, which accounts for the existence of a separate Baptist Church in Cades Cove, called Mission Baptist Church. Ministers of the Primitive sect are not supposed to go to any seminary for education, and they become pastors instead by “feeling the call” and subsequently being accepted by the elders. They are not supposed to give prepared sermons, but just speak “what the Holy Spirit tells them to say.” Since there were three or four ministers at any one time in the congregation, and each could speak as long as he wanted on Sunday, the combined sermons could go on for hours and hours.

Cades Cove meadow

The mill at the Cades Cove Visitors Center

Run! He's coming down!

While we were in the Cades Cove area, we took a drive through the campground there. We did not like it nearly so well as Elkmont Campground, where we are staying, especially with our stream-side site. Surprisingly, both campgrounds have many empty sites right now. The weather has been off-and-on rainy with mild temperatures--perfect camping weather. Here’s a caution for future visitors here--we have been really dismayed by the poor lane discipline of many oncoming drivers on the turning and twisting roads inside the park. Beware of that big motorhome speeding toward you in your lane!

One of the great things about camping is meeting fellow campers. Owners of Fiberglas campers especially seem to seek each other out. Tonight we met Robert and Debra from Minneapolis, who have a 15-foot Trillium. Despite having two 12-V batteries for it, they run out of power in just a day, so Robert and Great Husband were consulting about what might be wrong, and we got a tour of the Trillium. It had interesting features such as jalousie windows and snap-in carpeting. The door didn’t fit at all as received from the factory so Robert had to do lots of modification to make it fit. They also don’t like the three-burner stove, which may have three burners, but which can’t possible handle three pots at the same time because the burners are so close together, intersecting actually. Robert and Debra chose not to have a bathroom in the Trillium, which makes it seem remarkably spacious inside. We enjoyed seeing their shower hut outside, which is a tent for one person to stand inside. They fill a bucket and use an immersion heater hooked up to their generator to heat the water. A 12-volt water pump feeds the hot water up to a shower head. They stand in a kiddie pool inside the shower hut so they are catching all the water to later dump back into the bucket to be disposed of properly as gray water. Wow!