Invasion of the Minis

We’ve been invaded by the minis!  But that’s for later!  Let’s talk about our day first.

We were up and at ‘em really early this morning … our goal: to finish exploring the Cades Cove heritage sites before the crowds showed up.  We were on the road shortly after 6:30a and were amongst the first few cars to enter the loop when the gate was unlocked at sunrise.  I don’t know where the others went, but we were the only ones at the Cable Mill area during the first hour of our visit there.  Perfect!

We explored the sites along the dotted red line shown in the inset.
[GSMNP map courtesy of the nps site; inset map from smokiesweb.com]

I’m going to do a separate post about the heritage sites, but in the meantime …

An ‘Old Timey’ look at the heritage sites on the Cades Cove Loop.

We didn’t make too many stops when we first entered the loop.  After all, our goal was to beat the crowds to the Cable Mill area.  But a few scenes that caught our eye just had to be photographed and taped. 

Breakfast time for the horses that are stabled in Cades Cove.
By the way, that’s fog behind the treeline.

Nice to have a built-in fly swatter.

Wild turkeys strutting their stuff during a morning stroll in the meadow.

Pileated Woodpecker
(or so a birder standing nearby told me; horrible lighting, so you get a B&W Treatment.)

Glimpse of the distant mountains as the sun starts to burn off the fog.

In the language of flowers, the iris means ‘Good news’.
It takes its name from the greek word for rainbow.

The views that the native Americans and the settlers enjoyed back in the 1800s …

… we get to enjoy today.

We weren’t expecting to have to ford the creek on Sparks Lane, but the CR-V is up to the task.

We finished exploring the last of the heritage sites shortly after noon.  Time for lunch … but where?  After weighing our options, we decided to do something different.  Instead of eating at the picnic area near the NPS campground, we parked at the Carter Shields Cabin, one of the heritage sites.  Pulling out the picnic basket and our portable picnic table, we set ourselves up under the trees and had a quiet meal there, acknowledging the waves of visitors driving by.  Perfect.

Have picnic table … will eat anywhere we please.

Actually there was one other person who had the same idea as us — a biker who camped out behind the cabin to eat his lunch.  Later, he stopped by to share some berry preserves he’d bought at the visitor center; in return we gave him a couple of bottles of water and a bag of grapes.  It was an unexpected encounter that added to our pleasure in the day.

Our private picnic area — ain’t life great?

After lunch, we debated dallying around Cades Cove to try our luck with a few more bear sightings.  But in the end, with only one more day of our vacation left, we decided to return to the campground and enjoy the rest of the afternoon at home.  First, though, we detoured to the local IGA to replenish our fruits and veggies.  I don’t usually take pictures in the parking lot of grocery stores, but this time I couldn’t resist …

The minis — Mini Coopers, that is — have invaded Townsend.

They weren’t the only ‘minis’ in town.  When we arrived at the campground it was to find the far loop — and a few of the sites in our loop — filled with Casitas, Scamps, and other “egg campers.”  What a sight!  It was impossible to get a photo to show the full visual impact of all these mini-campers in one place.  But, I found some photos on Tremont Outdoor Resort’s Blog, which I combined into a collage.

Collection of photos from the Eggscursion of the Egg Camping Club.
According to the blog, there are 72 egg campers from 20 States and Canada at the campground. 
[photos compliments of the Tremont blog]

We later had an opportunity to chat with the woman who owns the Boler pictured in the bottom right corner of the collage — she’s our site-neighbor after all.  A former nurse from New York state, she travels by herself since her hubby prefers to stay at their stix & brix home.  I’m sure she would have been happy to give me the ‘grand tour’ of her Boler, but as usual, I was too shy to ask.

It sure looks like our Phaeton gave birth to a baby-camper!

And on that note, time to wrap up this post with a picture that I took early this morning.  I saved it until last, because it just screamed …

The End!