2026 Natchez Trace ride - Day 16 - Great Smokey Mountain

Riding in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park

I woke up at 6:00 and quickly got dressed. It was very dark outside so I dug a camera out of my fanny pack and headed out to the bike. Last night I took much of the bike apart get it the headlights. I changed them both out then put it back together enough to to start the engine and make sure the headlights work. Then I was so hot and tired I stopped for the night, but now I need to put it all back together. 

I took my time while putting it all together. There have been too many times I get everything put back and I have spare parts , but not this time!! 

I was all finished just as the sky was getting light. I look hopefully to the east but all I saw was clouds and fog. No pretty sunrise for me. 

I hopped on the bike turned it around and rode up the hill. I turned left and had a deeper into the neighborhood. I went about 10 minutes just Meandering listening for problems trying to feel whether anything was loose or rattling everything seems good so I turned around and headed back. 

I got all my stuff put away including my new tools. I figured out where to put them on the bike so they would be ready when I next needed them.  Then I went in and got all my writing stuff ready and took it out on the bike. That will save me time later when I'm rushing trying to get out the door. 

By this time a few people are awake. I figured scrambled eggs was the easiest thing so I started cracking eggs into a bowl , cut a pack of bacon in the quarters and started that frying , then scrambled the eggs.  By the time I was done with all that everyone was awake and ready to eat. 

Getting ready for our ride

Foggy highway riding to start the day

Clouds starting to rise and break up

We are loaded and ready to go not long after 8:30. You stopped for gas and it's going till we reach the town of Cherokee we rode North and into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. We stopped for a short break and went into the visitor center. They had a nice tropical map of the park we spent a while looking at it, then we wanted her back out, got on the bikes and started the ride. 

Like other days, it's redundant say it was beautiful because all the roads around here are beautiful. There wasn't much traffic and we kept our speeds down around 35 or 40. It was still in the 70s and everyone but Nan and I had on heated gear. 

Entering Great Smokey Mountain

Stopping at a scenic overlook

Beautiful views

All of us at the overlook

We stopped a few times to let cars pass. This National Park is actually a through way. It lets all the traffic from the south get up to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Fork and vice versa. Some of the cars are in quite a hurry. 

The road started climbing, and we started to catch glimpses through the trees of the beautiful views. Finally there was a Scenic pull out and we stopped to get some pictures. We used John's tripod to get photos. 

Also stopped at the next pull out, but just a quick stop. There were stops about every quarter mile after that for quite a ways. We didn't bother stopping at them all.  Several times man didn't even get off the bike, she would just stand up a little higher and say yep that's pretty and sit back down. 

Quick drive through a scenic overlook

I had purchased a driving tour to go with the park.  The app is called action tour guide, and the audio tour cost $15. It's the same app I was using last week when I toured Shiloh and Vicksburg. As you're driving through the park different spots on the road will trigger an audio description. It was a little hard being on the intercom and also trying to listen to the tour but we did hear some interesting facts and relay them to the rest of the group. 

The tour told us a lot about the people who originally organized to create the park. It also told us a lot about the Cherokee people who used to inhabit the area. It told us there traditions and stories about how things got created. 

View from Newfound Gap

After we cross the top of the pass we are now getting views out to the west of the mountains. Our audio guide told us about the 2016 fires that burned through the park and all the way into Gatlinburg. You could still see some scars from the fire, but nothing like out in the West. The hills were already densely forested again. You could see a few bear trees sticking up here or there, but other than that you would know it was burned just 10 years ago. 

View toward Gatlinburg and the 2016 fire

One of the tunnels, my loud airhorn made quite the noise in here

More views to the North

We're eventually reached the other end of the park and The Visitor Center there . We stopped for a quick break and decided that it was late enough to get some lunch. I was still a little mentally confused about locations, but I picked a restaurant that said it was only 2 miles away.. John picked another one that said it was close as well but when we started heading there it wound up taking almost 15 minutes to get there. It turns out John had picked one in Pigeon Forge which is actually on the far side of Gatlinburg. 

But it doesn't matter because Pigeon Forge the home of Dolly Parton and with her recent death we all wanted to go see the town anyway. There were some Billboards commemorating her.  There also seemed to be a big car show going on. There were classic cars parked up and down both sides of the street. We didn't spend much time looking at the cars because it was too hot. 

We stopped at the barbecue place.  Nan and I split a plate of brisket burnt hands. 2 days ago Nan got the same thing and we both loved it. This wasn't quite as good.  We also got a banana pudding and it was pretty good too. 

Angela started rubbing her head and said she had a migraine coming on.  She took some Tylenol and drank some Dr Pepper but it didn't help. Eventually they decided they were just going to head back to the house rather than ride up  Cades Cove. 

We started riding back towards home.  I asked Nan if she wanted to go home or if she wanted to keep touring. She was open to doing more touring so long as that also meant we can stop by a casino for a little while. So we announced over the intercom that we were going to drop off and look around a bit more. 

Riding up Cades Cove

A beautiful creek running up Cades Cove

We didn't go all the way up Cades Cove because it was getting hot. But I started scrolling through the audio to her and playing the stories. Who pretty well finished all the stories about the time we were back to the main road. 

Not long after we turned south on the main road the temperature started decreasing again as we climbed. It felt really good. We stopped two or three times but more serious and one time we stopped for about 15 minutes just to stretch our legs. We did not bother stopping at the top, and often our stops we just to pull out line up a nice picture and then move on. Anytime car started to back up behind us I'd pull off and let them pass. 

Twin Peak (I think) where the 2016 fire began

Stopped to take stretch our legs and rest a bit

Drive by viewing

More drive by viewing

We got back to the visitor center to use the bathroom and buy a cold bottle of water.  The temperature was back up to 94 degrees and the sun was beating down on us making it feel much hotter.

We stopped by a grocery store to pick up a few things on the way back.  Salad, eggs, tomato, and Fat Boy ice cream sandwiches.

Dinner was mostly leftovers.  Chicken tacos and salad.  The salad was great after so many heavy lunches.  I haven't had my ice cream sandwich yet, I'm using it as a bribe to myself to get the blog done.

Daily Miles: 152

Total Miles: 3487

Total drive time: 79h27m