Diet And Travel

Showing posts with label Tennessee. Show all posts

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Tennesse Road trip 2016

Hello, I am sharing some scenes from our visit to Tennessee Feb 17-20th. It was an action packed trip from sunrise to sunset each day. We did some sightseeing beside birding, I know you are surprised about that. It is not always about the birds. I hope you enjoy the photos. The first and last days were taken up just for the drive to Tennessee and back home.

During our Tennessee trip we visited the Cherokee Indian Removal Memorial and Museum. The park was built as a memorial to the Cherokee Indians who were removed from their homeland and forced on the journey west known as the Trail of Tears. This area had 9 encampments of thousands of Cherokees that waited weeks to be sent across the river at Blythe Ferry. In 1838 around 9,000 Cherokees were forced to leave their homes and march west toward Oklahoma.

Our shadows at the Blythe Ferry crossing..the start of the Trail of Tears.

"How do we ever prevent the greed and lust for power from causing another Trail of Tears?" The memorial wall on the left side memorializes the 1835 census of the Cherokee. The map shows the actual trails showing the different routes taken by the Cherokees on their journey west.

A look at the memorial.

"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace. " Philip Hornbyi Hendrix

A message above is from Chief Chadwick Smith of the Cherokee Nation.

Yes, here are some of the birds seen around the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge and the memorial park. The Sandhill Cranes, Eastern Bluebirds, Mockingbird and a Yellow-rumped Warbler. I hope you enjoyed my post. As always, I appreciate the visits and your nice comments. Have a happy new week ahead!

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge

If you have been following my blog for sometime you know hubby and I love to travel. Now that we are both retired we can up and leave whenever the weather is nice. This trip to Tennessee was planned just the night before we left, we wanted to take advantage of some mild weather for our drive to Tennessee. I had been watching EBIRD the site to see if any Sandhill Cranes were still being seen at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge.

We arrived at the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge on the morning of Feb 18th. The cranes fly into and out of the wildlife refuge daily. Numbers of Sandhill Cranes and an occasional Whooping Crane can be seen at the wildlife refuge from November to February. We met some wonderful nice birders at the refuge, I believe the local birders were looking for the elusive Whooping Crane. All the people and birders we met in Tennessee were super friendly and helpful.

We stayed in a nearby town Dayton, located just miles away from the refuge and not too far of a drive to the Falls Creek Falls State Park. The Hiwassee Wildlife refuge 6,000 acres is located where the Hiwassee River and the Tennessee River meet.

There were a lot of white-tailed deer in the area of the wildlife refuge. I am sharing one photo of the deer with this fence shot.

The observation deck is a good distance from where we saw the Sandhill Cranes. You know me by now, I still had to take photos even with the great distance.

A pretty blue sky with the Sandhill Cranes in flight.

In four days we drove more like 1,700 miles after sightseeing around the parks and Tennessee. We had a total of four days traveling, 2 of the days were taken up on the drive down to Tennessee and the drive back home. So we had just 2 days to see everything we wanted to see in Tennessee, not a lot of time.

A pretty view from the overlook of the Tennessee River and the Hiwassee Island.

Another favorite image was the moon over the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge.

I will have a lot more from our trip to Tennessee and of the Cranes coming soon.
As always I hope you liked my photos. Thank so much for stopping by.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Blueridge Pkwy, Gatlingburg, Smoky Mountain trip report

Oct 4- Oct 8 Blueridge Parkway, Great Smoky Mountain Nat’l Park, Gatlinburg

Oct 4. Our first day we drove part way on I-81 and hopped over to the Blueridge Pkwy on I-64 in Virginia. We were hoping to see some pretty leaves and maybe some black bears on the Parkway. So we drove from the beginning of Virginia's Blueridge Pkwy to just south of Mabry Mill where we got back over to I-81. The parkway drive was much slower than we expected. We arrived in Gatlinburg later that evening and checked into our room for the next 4 nights at the Zoder’s Inn.

Mabry Mill

Oct 5. We woke up early and decided on a quick and free breakfast at Zoder’s. The breakfast of bagels, hardboiled eggs and coffee was just enough to keep me and hubby happy for awhile. After breakfast we headed to the Roaring Fork Motor drive. Almost as soon as entering the drive we saw our first black bear, there were a few cars ahead of us and a park ranger who clapped the bear away. We did get to watch the bear for a little while. We headed up the drive to the parking lot for the Grotto Falls trail. It is a fairly easy trail and the waterfalls is a pretty one. I was actually able to go behind the falls, which is kind of fun. Some time during this day we had a late lunch at Corky’s in Pigeon Forge. We both had the ribs and two sides. A very reasonably priced restaurant and the food was good. From there we headed back to the Sugarland Visitor Center and took the short walk to the Cataract Falls. Not much water on the Cateract falls but, it is a pretty walk. Leaving the visitor center we headed around the park to Cades Cove checking out the fall colors along the way. Cades Cove was extremely crowded, we should have saved this trip for earlier on another morning. Wildlife sightings at Cades Cove were some wild turkeys and deer. The horses were pretty too. By this time it was later evening so we headed back to our room. We learned to use the Pigeon Forge bypass to come and go from the park to our hotel. The traffic in Gatlinburg is horrible.

Grotto Falls

Oct 6. Breakfast was at the Log Cabin Pancake House in Gatlinburg. We went to breakfast right when they opened at 7am so glad they have their own parking lot and there was no wait. The pancakes and coffee were served quickly and were off for some more sightseeing around the park. We headed to Clingman’s Dome, wished the weather could have been better. We had a cloudy morning but at least it was not raining. We were hoping for some great views at the Dome but the clouds got in the way. Next we headed towards Cherokeee and a quick stop at the Mingus Mill, it is a interesting spot with some pretty fall trees around. Our next stop for the day was another waterfall. It was called Mingo Falls in Cherokee. The 200 steps going up to the waterfall overlook and down were a little much for my sore leg, I tore my hamstring a little more than two weeks before our trip. My Doc said it was ok to still go so I think the walking might have helped like therapy? We had dinner in Cherokee, a late lunch buffet. I can not remember the name of the place. It was good, I had the chicken and their peach cobbler was yummy. After dinner we headed back to the Cherokee visitor center in the park. We walked around the old homestead, I liked seeing the chickens walking around free. Leaving the visitors center heading back to Gatlinburg, we were excited to see a herd of elk. There was a crowd there but everyone and the park rangers were nice. I was happy there were no crazy photographers trying to chase down the animals for a closeup. The elk herd sighting was a great way to end the day and head back to our room for the night.

Clingman's Dome

Oct 7. Another morning to have the free and easy breakfast at our hotel. After breakfast we headed back out to the Roaring Fork Motor Trail. Again almost near the same spot we sighted a very young bear and a bear jam. We watched it for a while on one side on the road then crossed over to the other side, it walked on a downed tree and then decided to climb another tree. I was happy to get my bear fix in for the morning. Not far off down the drive we sighted another bear, this time crossing the road right in front of our car. Another great bear sighting on the Roaring Fork. I just love this place, further along the drive we came across a group of wild turkeys standing in a field near an old homestead? After finishing up with this motor tour we head over to the Laurel Falls, we enjoyed this hike to the waterfalls. It is an easy paved trail and a very popular trail. Not sure when but we headed down the Blueridge Pkwy in the afternoon, it was a very foggy day so we decided not to continue and got off an exit. We ended up having dinner in one of the Sagebrush Steakhouses, I believe it was somewhere around Waynesville. After dinner we made our way back to Gatlingburg via the Foothills Parkway. The sky and fog was clearing up and the views were very pretty.

Laurel Falls

Oct. 8. Time to start the long drive home to Maryland. We checked out of the Zoder’s ( I posted a separate review on Zoder’s Inn) we gassed up the car in Pigeon Forge which is much cheaper $3.39 , for some reason the gas stations in Gatlinburg did not advertise their prices. We stopped for a nice breakfast at Mel’s Diner in Pigeon Forge. We were both happy with omelets and usually enjoy diner food. Here we said goodbye to the Smoky Mountains, Gatlinburg and Tennessee. It was a great trip and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. I am sorry for the long read.

Black bear seen in Shenandoah Nat'l Park on the way home

Friday, October 12, 2012

Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park

This was our road trip in 2012 to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

I did not have much luck birding in the Smokies, some of the common birds I saw were the Dark-eyed Junco and lots of Wild Turkeys. I could hear Blue Jays, American Crows, Turkeys Vultures, unknown Warblers, Titmouse, Chickadees and Nuthatches but none of them wanted their photo taken. In the creek near our hotel and town I saw some Mallard Ducks.

Above are shots of the Grotto Falls, A Dark-eyed Junco, Fall colors, Cades Cove horses, Wild Turkey, behind Grotto Falls, Smoky Mountain colors, deer, Cades Cove.

On our first full day, hubby and I drove to the Roaring Fork Motor Drive and headed for the parking lot for the Grotto Falls before it got too crowded. At the beginning of the drive we saw a black bear, I did manage a blurry photo before the park ranger clapped it away. We did the 2.6 mile roundtrip hike to the waterfall. I even walked behind the waterfall, a first for me after many different waterfall visits.

I was checking out the color along the Grotto Falls trail.

Later in the day we headed to the Cades Cove drive, here we saw horses, wild turkeys and some deer. It was very crowded and took a while to do the 11 miles of the motor tour.

Some of the pretty Smoky Mountain colors.

Since, the birds were hiding from me and my camera I decided to take some shots of the horses. They are pretty.

I was happy hearing and seeing the birds moving quickly all along this Grotto Falls trail. It was very birdy trail, just not a good day for taking bird photos. I hope you enjoyed hiking to the waterfall with me and seeing the Cades Cove Horses.

Thanks for the visit, enjoy your day!