To the Smokies

This morning, left at about 10am to Pigeon Forge first before going to the Smoky Mountains at Gatlinburg. It was about 45 mins drive to Pigeon Forge. Went shopping at the outlet malls. It is a huge area with few hundred one-storey shops, selling things at a factory outlet price. So it is reasonable. Had lunch there at "The Chop House". CT and I ordered pork chops for lunch. I enjoyed it. There was actually an option to downsize the food..so I did. What I got was just one piece of pork chop and one Idaho baked potato. CT ordered more as his lunch is charged under the company since this is considered his business trip.

After lunch, we made our way to "The Smoky Mountains National Park". We went on another way which has less travel to the park, without passing through Gatlinburg town. It was a very scenic drive. I planned to spend 2 days touring this national park and for both days, to see the sunset at the mountains.

Today, I planned to drive round "Cades Cove"-a place in Smoky Mountains and then drive up straight to mountains and see sunset. In Cades Cove, it is a self-guided one way tour in the car, driving slowly and just looking out for wild animals. I managed to see 4-5 white-tailed deers at different places of Cades Cove. It was awesome. Below are pictures of the sceneries I took while driving in Cades Cove.




















In Cades Cove, there are a lot of churches and cabins along the way for people to see. It is like a monument site. Some places, you need to walk from the carpark to the place...about 1/4 mile, which is about 400m. Quite fun to walk in the forest to the place. This is one of the cabins seen in Cades Cove.

After going one loop of Cades Cove, 4 hours has passed so swiftly already and it was about 7pm. We stopped by the tourist information centre and asked how long it took to go to the mountains from Cades Cove and they said 2 hours. Thus,it was way too late to go up. (By the way, the sun sets at 845pm...very late)

So, we decided to go back after touring Cades Cove and come back tomorrow to see the sunset. On our way back, we stopped by a place with a river stream where I took out my shoes and walked in to soak my legs.

After that, we drove to another river place where people were swimming to take some photos. It was on the way back anyway.

While driving home, the sun was setting and I managed to catch the sunset on the roads where the sun appeared in front of me! I felt so so happy..Take a look!


The sky was orange-purple in colour. Very beautiful. The interesting thing is that the sun actually appeared in front of me as we drove on the road. It was as if God has made it put it in front of me to see His wonderful creation.

I was so happy as I love watching sunrise and sunsets esp when the sky has a nice colour.

When we reached back to Knoxville, it was 945pm already. We went to "Red Lobster" for dinner and even though they close at 10pm, they still let us in. That is the Southern hospitality for you.

By the time, we ate finish and left the place, it was 1030pm already...The waiter still gave us good service and with a smile. No one hurried us to leave though we were the last ones left.