Camping In Cades Cove, TN - Great Smoky Mountains National Park

hello everybody this is uh Thursday afternoon September the 1st and sorry I'm pulling back out on the roads that's why I'm disappearing on the screen uh having to look um we're coming back to y'all with another video it's been a little bit since we've actually done one uh we've had a very stressful last several weeks uh having to do some things around her mom's house and stuff so I kind of wanted to do a little getaway this weekend and uh I just need to get away yeah much needed getaway so right now tell them where we're headed right now we're heading to Gatlinburg okay so we're only going to be in Gatlinburg for one night because we're going camping we're going camping we got the next three nights over in Kate's Cove Kate's Cove our favorite place to camp um it's only our second time camp and y'all know how the last one is smoke mom went we got uh soaked uh they are calling for some showers this weekend too not not a total rain out but um we're a little gonna be a little bit better prepared yes we're not going to get wet this time so um got some things uh in mind to keep that from happening so anyway we are now on the Foothills Parkway uh just got off Interstate 40 uh crossed over into Tennessee uh we're on the Foothills Parkway East we're going to end up in Cosby so um we're heading on over to Gatlinburg for the night we're going to head on over to Cades Cove in the morning don't even know what's going to be on this video just uh whatever we happen to see that's of Interest we'll put it on here this is going to be kind of a mixed bag video so uh just stay with us for this weekend and we'll try to bring you some stuff that hopefully you'll enjoy [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] to show you just a little bit of the scenery on the Foothills Parkway here it's about six miles long from where you get on it Interstate 40 until you end in Cosby and we're looking over here now at the main range of the Smokies this is actually the mountain um then I'm zooming up on this is the mountain we hiked last October and we're actually planning to hike it again this year we're gonna go a little later in the month weather permitting hopefully there'll be a little bit more fall color but that's Mount camera that's on the very Northeastern edge of the park and you can just follow the ridge line Smokies looking back down towards Gatlinburg obviously you can't see Gatlinburg from here but Matt in front of you there is called Anna do knob i-n-a-d-u and of course looking down to the valley looks like we got a little bit of a sweater yeah somebody's burning something or something's on fire so anyway very nice pull off here this is your first Overlook on the left once you get onto the Foothills Parkway and we're gonna head on into Gatlinburg now all right everybody we are officially leaving our Motel headed to Cades Cove now we um record a little bit going through Gatlinburg I was going to record a little bit around town last night I left my camera on the roof so anyway we're gonna head on over to Kate's Cove one of our favorite spots and all of the Great Smoky Mountains and if you were watching this video let me just say that I'm not trying to add to the traffic that's already in Cades Cove but a lot of people we know from back home that come to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge you don't even know where Cades Cove is they ain't never heard of it um if all you do is come up here for Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge you are missing out on the Smoky Mountains yeah there's a lot of beautiful scenery a lot of stuff to do out there I mean I know people like to walk the streets and Shop we do that too but Cades Cove is literally one of the prettiest places we've ever been we've been to a lot of places we've been a lot of pretty places but Cades Cove is in my opinion right up there at the top um and we're going to head over there now we love camping there we have three days there we'll be riding through the loop numerous times uh hoping to see some bear we we usually do see some sometimes more than others but um usually see some coyote deer turkey yeah the deer population I think has declined some over the years there used to be times we could go through and see a hundred oh yeah I remember on our honeymoon when we went it was over a hundred yeah um I think the coyote population might be part of that too but um I also heard there's some kind of disease or sickness that got some of the deer several years ago I don't know what it was but anyway coming into Gatlinburg now and I guess that uh rental place is getting some free advertisement here at Gatlinburg Adventure rentals so a lot of people rent those you see those out and about a lot are those slingshots trying to get through Gatlinburg they can be a chore sometimes traffic's picking up yesterday when we come into town like when I went to Pigeon Forge it was not bad at all yeah this is Friday so they're coming in I'm glad I won't be here this evening and this afternoon when people really start getting here this is gonna be a pretty day though yeah we're praying a comfortable temperature right now it's after 11 o'clock I think it's supposed to stay in the 70s today finally in town we've been able to move a little bit I always got to watch the crosswalks up right here good example foreign like over here to the left I don't know if the camera's picked in roof and all saw stuff was looks like that's gone the top of the building it's just completely good it is yeah it does probably putting another moonshine thing in or another CBD thing and if it sounds like I'm a little frustrated I am because I remember what Gatlinburg used to be and I see what it is now and it's just I don't know it seemed like but us is just taking it over now there was a um we're in the room earlier there was a channel what was it 196 a Gatlinburg and it was showing Gatlinburg like what in the 1950s and 60s yeah I mean it's like so much more family oriented stuff more of a culture you know teaching you you know how the mountains yeah people live and stuff like that that's like that's interesting or see a building right back there behind yeah that was it you didn't know that's there now because they were showing that yesterday they said the Aunt mahalia's Candy kitchens which they've been here for a long time yeah there's a few things that's been here as long as I can remember but most of it has just completely changed it's like when we first or when I first started coming you've been coming longer than me um I remember it was like a lot of t-shirt shops and old-time photos was things like that was like the name there's still quite a bit of that there are yeah but there's just like yeah there's other stuff you have the distilleries a lot of our favorite stores are gone um like she was saying we were walking down last night when you used to drive in town you immediately started smelling all the food from the restaurants now you smell the um whatever it is they smoke the CBD server you smell the the Moonshine and I'm we're not fans of either one of those so um yeah it's it's changed um still you know we like to come here we're kind of starting to Branch out a little bit and do like a little bit more over the North Carolina side like Maggie Valley Bryson City Waynesville things like that um we're just really glad to be going to Cades Cove this week it's one of my favorite places so all right so here is the entrance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park it's a very popular photo op there's the sign and there's someone bottling yep we've gotten many pictures there are probably my favorite ones was when it snowed uh 2020 on Christmas day oh yeah the trees were just drooped over the sign almost real pretty over the road it was an awesome awesome time so about a mile up from here is the sugarlands visitor center stay straight on 441 you go up to Newfound Gap you can also go to Cleveland's Dome from here uh if you continue on 441 you go down the other side of the Smokies into Cherokee but we're not going to do that today we are going to turn right at the visitor center and he had 24 miles to Kane's Cove right along the river beautiful River we're not going to record the whole way over but uh just bits and pieces here and there I want to try to do a little bit of a different video than what we did last year last year we um uh did a video of the drive time and the mileage and the reason I did that I knew how long it took and knew how far it was but if you're a member of any of the Gatlinburg or cadesco Facebook pages people are always asking um how long it takes to drive from Gatlinburg to Cades Cove and what the best way is there's people that'll tell you if you're in Gatlinburg go back over to Pigeon Forge and go through where's Valley that's not the best way to go from Gatlinburg it is the best way to go from Pigeon Forge if you're going to Gatlinburg from Gatlinburg best way to go is right here like this so we did a little uh thing there where we chronicled the miles over there and it's like it was 25.9 Miles from the city limits of Gatlinburg and then it took us like 47 48 minutes something like that and that was without much traffic at all and we took our time because we were in the truck and had the trailer too yeah so you're not going to do it in under 45 minutes that's uh not from Gatlinburg or not if there's a lot of traffic it can take longer so so turn right here and from the sugarland's visits Visitor Center to the beginning of the Cove is 24 miles it's a very beautiful drive very curvy take your time enjoy it stop along the way and take pictures I won't tell you this this is an especially pretty drive at the peak of the fall leaves usually third fourth week in October um everybody else thinks so too along the river yeah everybody else thinks so too but uh get out there early you will have some beautiful beautiful pictures of the uh changing leaves and the river and it's it's indescribable so we're going to cut the camera off a little bit drive on over and we'll a little things along the way I do want to show you all this notice all these cones along the way um they're doing this to do away with people parking on the side of the road they don't want people parking along the roads anymore in fact uh just for way of information the Great Smoky Mountains has now voted in to start charging people to park inside the national park and I think that goes into effect in March this is a Trailhead for Laurel Falls and notice they're doing away with people parking along the side of the road um of course there's some right there I guess they're gonna allow that because it's wide enough but um as of March of next year if you're going to be in the national park and you're going to park I think if it's longer than 15 minutes if you're going to be parked longer than 15 minutes you have to have a parking pass and you know if you're driving through you don't have to have it I don't know if you have to have it if you're just going to stop it and Overlook and snap a picture I think I heard 15 minutes so like if you're going to clingman's dome obviously that would apply don't know if it applies to the campgrounds with registered campers I hope not um but I want to say that it's you can either get a day pass maybe a week or I think you can buy a yearly pass which is probably what we're going to end up having to do because we're up here quite a bit uh not sure how often we actually Park for that long of a time I like to find out about the camping uh situation if if campers are exempt as long as they're in their site but anyway they wear that starting in March of next year you will have to pay a parking fee if you come to the Great Smoky Mountains they're not supposed to ever charge an entrance fee because of the agreement that was made with the landowners they gave up their land for the national park there's never supposed to be an entrance fee charged here and you know the government's never going to break a promise to anybody you know that so um we'll see how that goes but I guess this is kind of a way around charging an entrance fee is getting charging a parking fee so don't know all the ins and outs of why they did that in a way I understand and it's kind of needed because it seems like there's not a lot of Manpower anymore as far as Rangers as far as enforcing the laws that are already being broken in the National Park um you know in Cades Cove this week I guarantee you on this video we're going to see people I don't know if I'll put it on the video or not I may we'll see people try to walk up to bears uh we'll see people parking in the middle of the road and getting out of their cars it happens every year it does so all of those are against park rules so I don't know maybe in a way assessing the fee will and another thing that we've noticed over the last few years people come in trash the Park yeah right graffiti on the walls of structures on the signs throw you see Mass playing down there we've seen masks on hiking trails yeah Stone on the ground yeah um one thing we were talking about is hopefully with the fees the only people that are willing to pay it may be the people who are coming to appreciate the park right yeah so we'll see how that goes but like I say you just picture all this when the trees are orange yellow red cut on a sunny day it's so bright oh yeah it is it's indescribable it's also very crowded during that time yes it is pretty dry hard to believe in just over a month from now are going to start turning you just got one stop throw windshield right now right above the camera see I'm on the road a little bit I've never seen a leaf just hit your windshield there I finally went that thing stayed there I know kind of hard I'm ready for summer to be over love fall I love summer but I'm really looking forward to fall this year I think October to December is my favorite time of year cool air leaves turning pumpkins hot chocolate hot chocolate all right we are now coming up on the intersection for Townsend that means we have seven more miles to go to Kate's Cove but it's this is what's called the towns of the Y this intersection and a lot of people come here and get in the water which we've actually talked about doing we've um actually brought our bathing suits this time in case it gets warm enough before we want to go dip in that cold Mountain Water I think the temperature is supposed to be in the 70s over here so I don't know if that's that's a little on the cool side that's too cool yeah because that water is going to be cold so we'll see we'll if we get hot in the campground we might come all over here and do that and if so we'll get Sean to see on video going into that water okay folks we are almost at the campground we should be coming up on the sign that lets us know we are entering the code a couple of years ago we were coming in there was a bear right there by the sun yeah there was it's the only time we've ever seen a bear out here foreign I think they're calling for thunderstorms every day so I would like to go ahead and get our tents secured and covered up before that happens but close to The Cove here really soon all right we see the sign coming down this hill here we both thought it was as requesting a hill but it's actually there it is entering tanks Cove so first thing you'll come to after you pass that sign is the picnic area and then you'll come to um you can turn left and go into the campground or if you stay straight you actually enter the code itself at the beginning of the code there's a very large parking lot with some information on brochures and things of that nature hardly anybody in it today it's a great day to come out here that will change by tomorrow though oh yeah I've been here enough to know is it still early Friday afternoon probably changed by tonight A lot of people be coming in tonight and of course as this sign says they have a riding stables if you want to ride a horse that's your thing this is a great Campground they got a great store some of the best ice cream on the planet uh it's a soft serve it I don't know it just seems to taste better when you're here it does you know I think it's just Mayfield but it just tastes better when you're in the campground so we're going to pull in here right now and go ahead and check in let them know we're here I've already paid by reservation but we're gonna check in this is the disadvantage of having one snaggle tube sticking out on the bottom Renoir renmar see how the green stick your stickers around his mouth what are those folks this is a genius auger here renmore you got an oak leaf hanging out your mouth all right well we worked long and hard getting our tent hopefully rain proof trying to figure out the best way to do this I know that's not pretty but that should keep us dry that's the main thing I'm gonna be disappointed now if it don't rain I'll be fine if it don't rain it has a lot of work it needs to rain at least one time anyway we still ain't got camp set up yet but we're getting there we're getting there so anyway hoping to get done pretty quick and right through the Cove or take a nap or whatever looks like the storm it may blow up a storm here a little bit it's clouding up so we'll see hearing indicates Cove our first trip through and Gregory balled up there and packed that mountain twice Ford Wheeling if we're healthy next June and the azaleas are blooming up there we're going to hike it again do a video from up there we got to wait till the third week of June of next year because that's when the Azalea is coming in and I'm not doing that hike unless I'm going to see the azaleas because it's a tough one this is coming up on the best Overlook in the Cove where you can kind of see a lot of things you can see thunder heading out Rocky Top out there the far distance back over this way okay it is a beautiful Saturday morning here in case Cove Campground I've already gotten up and got my shower we did not get any rain so we might today we got a mask going on right now in the campsite so I have to clean that up a little bit this is why you don't tie your dogs too close together what happened to you guys foreign what happened to you guys you got a little Tangled Up didn't you what are you gonna do about that I'll have to fix them okay we are cutting across Sparks Lane in Cades Cove now um if you have to leave The Cove early for some reason and don't want to do the whole Loop there's two ways you can cut across it the first one you'll come to it is Sparks Lane and the second one is high I think and they're both beautiful drives um especially like after the storm just riding through the fields here and the clouds coming up looks like we're going to get stormed on that's one of the reasons we're going to go ahead and exit now we need to run over towns in any way since we really can't see a lot of the higher mountains we're gonna just cut across Sparks Lane and we're going to come back later uh into the whole code but once you see a little bit of this it's just a little gravel road that you lost a couple of creeks yeah he crossed a couple of creeks but anyway this is Sparks Lane and it's just a way to get to the other side of the cove and so of course the Cove is a one-way Loop Road so um if you need to get to the exit side you just cut across one of these two lanes here and it takes you right over to it this is the quickest way out of Cades Cove and then Hyatt would be the next quickest and then other than that you have to do the whole Loop a nice Serene little drive here across the gravel nice and peaceful just like that we're in the woods they're very quiet [Music] love being in nature okay and we have reached the end of Sparks Lane and we will make a left turn here to exit the cove this is a one-way so you can only make a left turn [Music] okay the first stop that you come to in Cades Cove as far as one of the historic homesteads is the John Oliver cabin there's two ways to do it uh we always take the trail through the woods going and the one through the field coming back so that's what we're going to do now we're gonna walk up there it's a quarter of a mile walk it is a very overcast day it is lightly misting but not enough to hurt anything and it's cool today it's in the 60s right now and this is a beautiful little walk through the woods to the Oliver cabin had to leave our pets in the truck because they're not allowed on this Trail unfortunately it's cool today we don't have to leave it running like we usually do with the air conditioner so okay the Oliver cabin is coming into view foreign and this is the sign that's asking you not to write on things and there are people who once you see the inside of the cabin you understand it there are people that thought it would be funny to write on the sign obviously some people just don't ever grow up make our way up to the cabin right here here's a little bit of history of it [Music] looking back down through the field and mountains in the background which you can barely see today he had a beautiful view I don't know how much time he got to enjoy it because life was hard then they worked hard one thing I just learned about Mr Oliver is that I'm obviously taller than he was because I just broke my head coming in I don't know if y'all heard this and Chelsea was opening with closing doors the doorway was not very high and I didn't duck oh I had me a little knot yeah but as you can see people carving their names and initials very small simple structure here can you go upstairs I think you just look at the top here's the stairway very dark yeah can't see much I'm out the other side that's it wouldn't you like to have a house that size clean and be a lot easier wouldn't it be out of here a couple Trails up behind over here to the other side of the porch and I got a spider web right here don't know if you see that or not now this has been redone I guess since last year yeah you used to just walk straight off the porch down through the field but now you have to kind of go back like you're going to take the woods trail and come down here and they've paved it which is I guess the paving is a good thing because it used to get very muddy down towards the bottom anyway just see if you got a stroller or a wheelchair or something yeah so uh you actually now have a paved path if you don't want to take the route through the woods you have a paved path you can walk down back to your car and it actually goes towards the further parking lot too yeah this is new since we were here last year look at the view yeah it's kind of hard to see it's kind of uh cloudy but still yet get this video right here the way those clouds are up against the mountains out there [Applause] we're up here at the main Cades Cove Overlook again and I know there's going to be several video clips on this from here but this is just a different view of it with the haze and the clouds and it's true that you can't really see the view as much but there's still something I don't know this is really neat see it like this okay we're gonna um put a little information in here a lot of people always ask when they come to Cates Co where is the Pearl Harbor Tree so we're going to show you right after you pull out of the main Overlook which you can't miss it's the big Overlook on your left it looks back out over the cove you leave that Overlook and you go a very short distance because there's no signs for this you just have to know where it's at so we're gonna hike up and show you the Pearl Harbor Tree it's not really a long hike but once you leave the Overlook there's this little gravel pull off right here on the right there's a rock yeah so you pull off right there we're gonna walk up in Pearl Harbor Tree you woke up The Path here I'm trying to remember it's been several years for us you go to the left or you just I guess you stay on stay on the path across these couple little uh logs here I thought it was up to the left I'm not going to try to give you the entire history of the Pearl Harbor Tree uh I want to say somebody maybe planted it right after the attack on Pearl Harbor or else they anyway there's a chain wrapped around it all right you Veer to the left right here I think there's kind of a little Memorial to what happened to Pearl Harbor you can Google the history on that for more information pretty steep little climb okay and at the top of the hill and there is nothing level about that climb I'm out of breath it's very short here's the Pearl Harbor Tree it's not a chain it's a what is that yeah like a band and there's a brick with some change on it and people have wrote names in memory of my Flags oh yeah also if you walk around the various cemeteries here at the at the churches in the Cove you'll notice on some of the graves there'll be like quarters or pennies left on it I found out that's what if you're visiting the coven you served in the military you leave change on the grave of someone else who did I think that's the story behind that but anyway very easy to find just got to know where to pull off Herbert Stein World War II appreciate all these people stopped himself up there let's see movement up here in the tree I don't know are you moving okay we're now driving down a Hyatt Lane which is the other uh road that cuts across Cades Cove it's just rained and just stopped we're almost stopped so this is usually a pretty dry right after a rain because of all the fog and the Mist on the mountains we're gonna stop here and get out and get a little bit again foreign [Applause] okay so we're still camping in Cades Cove and we're cooking supper uh didn't show a video of our supper last night we basically just had um portobello mushroom cheeseburgers really good but we got back dark it was dark when we got back to eat cooked in the dark [Applause] so right now we got the Blackstone going what we've got on there now before we put the zucchini on is um uh Yukon Gold potatoes out of our garden diced up uh covered with garlic garlic powder actually and uh butter so those are really good we do that when we're camping and we also slice up zucchini which we had last time that's always good on the real or on the black stone so the dogs yeah we got the dog some unseasoned breast of chicken a little tenderloin so we're going to grill those up for them no seasoning of course for them and I'm grilling my specialty ribeye steak so had it marinating all day usually do it the day before but I didn't get around to it last night so anyway hoping for a good supper tonight uh it started to rain on us I'd actually there's my uh relaxation chamber right there uh you see that uh green and yellow hammock that's before I do my relaxing and my reading and my napping my rent camping so um laid down earlier within two minutes of laying down it starts to drizzle so we packed up put everything up put it laid down in the tent and it stopped so I got we got back up unpacked everything laid back down out here again it started raining again I told her I said you can go in the tent if you want to I'm just going to lay here and it stopped again so I just slept in a tent yeah she just stayed there I got a little bit of reading done today and a little bit of napping and uh I feel like I can tackle anything right now after that little snooze so um but the weather's good right now kind of windy cool probably what 70 72 degrees you're in the campground it's not bad at all it's a little warmer out in the cove but no complaints all right the potatoes we think and they are already done this is our Yukon Gold potatoes kicked in butter and garlic powder we did sample one and they are amazing very soft zucchini on the black stone that's always a good tea I've already sampled that as well yeah it's really good A little bit of Hickory here's our seasoning give this a Bass Pro Hickory Grill there's nothing that's not good on yeah I mean yeah anything Meats vegetables vegetables we even put it on the garlic bread a little bit on girlfriend yeah garlic bread on the grill it's just a very versatile all-purpose awesome seasoning on our steaks too yeah [Music] hey it is now time for the ribeyes those have been marinating all day with the Hickory Grill garlic powder a little bit of meat tenderizer and Worcestershire sauce so I like to do a lot of different things with steaks try different things I told y'all before sometimes we use that uh hickory smoked sea salt that we get at the spice and Tea Exchange in Gatlinburg and I usually put that on about 24 hours before I grill that really makes them good but this is kind of the way I usually do steaks right here those four ingredients always turns out really good so not expecting anything any different this time all right the dog's chicken breast is already done they'll never eat out well they probably will eat all that it's more than we thought it was I think Renoir is ready for his Chow Down that's a lot of food for them I don't know if we should fit them that much or not we just bought a little packet of uh lean chicken breasts and well he's not even eating remember oh now he is so they're gonna enjoy that that may have made a lot more than what it looked like yeah it did Stakes have been flipped over so I just add a little bit more of this Hickory and just really Go Lightly with that the meat tenderizer plus this will make them too salty if you go too heavy so just a little bit it's all smelling so good yes it is I can't wait to dig into those now it's about clean their dishes up then and those are from Food City every year at Labor Day weekend Food City puts premium Angus Ribeyes on sale 9.99 a pound mm-hmm and those are that's a better rib eye than what you typically yeah it's usually Choice it's a prime those are those are still choices certified Angus certified okay I'll try to remember there was a special wording but they had prime but those were 12.99 I also we're just eating Choice Cut tonight but still really good do the marbling and Ribeyes already marbled good yeah they are okay folks here's the finished product ribeye steak some of the potatoes did get a little bit uh charred but they're still really good I don't I actually like to burnt stuff anyway so it's not a problem for me and the grilled zucchini you gave me more the burnt she don't like burnt stuff as much as I do I like burning anything popcorn bread toast anything um so anyway it smells good I know some of you are thinking grilled zucchini that don't sound good trust me you spray that with olive oil and put a little bit of that Hickory Grill on it and cook it till it's soft it just melts in your mouth so we've already prayed we're going to sit down and eat okay folks we have completed supper and I say this with humility but I pretty much nailed supper tonight it was uh I'm really proud the steak was perfect the potatoes were perfect zucchini was perfect she even ate ate my cooking so it must have been good tonight you did excellent we worked together on the side I'm not so when I met her she didn't even like steak and until she had mine on the grill but well actually because mom had only pan fried it and to me oh yeah you don't waste yourself and then it's just like and when he had it grilled I was like and then I got better cuts of steak okay this can be really delicious oh yeah so that's one of my hobbies is grilling I like grilling steaks especially trying different things uh with it but uh everything was really good tonight the only thing that concerns me a little is it's very windy in the campground right now and I don't I don't really like to be in a campground when it's windy because you don't never know if a tree is going to fall or a branch is going to fall off especially if you're laying in your tent and can't see it coming uh not as bad as 2012 we were here if you Google the stores of 2012 to hit East Tennessee in the Smokies several people died in those storms we were sitting right here at this table when those storms hit we did this same campsite every year and those things came out of nowhere yeah it was scary we had some friends that had come up and rent a cabin over where's Valley and they drove over to have supper with us we were growing up they said you heard we're supposed to get some storms this evening and we hadn't because you know you don't get a lot of news out here and uh I just thought they meant a thunderstorm they said no it's supposed to really be seriously when we were sitting here eating I mean it wasn't like the wind picked up it was a few hear it coming through the trees and then the trees were just bowing over it was it was scary we they jumped in their car and left and we jumped in ours and went out into the Cove because we didn't want to be in the campground There Were Trees going everywhere but we were very blessed to not be heard or injured some people lost their lives and and tree fell over the road between here and Townsend so we were stuck here to the next stage they got the tree moved and then they made us break Camp because of the water yeah the water situation they wouldn't need water so they basically refunded our money or gave us I think they gave us a credit to come back which we did do but anyway it's not like that but it is very windy and I don't know if it's supposed to just turn cool it's very pleasant oh yeah you could not ask for a better weather day anyway got the black stone all seasoned up all cleaned up everything put up so uh I don't know what we're gonna do now maybe get some ice cream yeah they got some really good ice cream down at the camp store down there so we're gonna do that we're gonna head back out into the Cove tonight hopefully see a bear she did you'll see it she saw a bear earlier today I think she got it on video I didn't see it because I had to keep driving you can't stop it I fuss when everybody else stops on the road so I'm not gonna do it uh so by the time I got parked she was already coming back the bear was gone so anyway hopefully we'll see some more all right we're getting ready to walk down to the store which you can see out in the distance from our site and we're going to get us some of that famed soft serve ice cream and honestly out of all the campgrounds in the Smoky Mountains this one has the nicest store yeah in fact only two of them even have any kind of store uh well I think Elkmont has a small one never actually been in it but this one has every souvenir and I did a walk through of that last year so I'm not going to do that again but I'll show you a little bit of it on the inside as we go get our ice cream it's almost not hot enough for ice cream you know just something cool it really hits the spot when it's hot it's really not hot today but we always have to get some anyway so okay just a basic cake is five dollars oh I want a swirls okay and the price goes up from that I usually get the chocolate beer waffle cone but we're kind of full after supper all right we're getting ready to ride through Kate's Cove I'm sitting on the back of the pickup and I'm gonna ride open air tonight I got me a companion who's a little upset with me right now you excited we're going through Cades Cove yeah just lay there and relax you'll enjoy this he does not like to be held and I just held him so he's a little mad at me right now say hello to everybody do you know how many people watching you act like this yes I literally the back of my truck with stickers or places we've been and we are waiting on I don't know what this is a really neat way to see The Cove if you have a pickup truck sit on the back feel the breeze in your face we alternate doing that um usually in the evening one of us will ride the first half of the cove and we'll switch in the other will drive and we alternate it again the next night as well and of course here's the ranger station and over there is the general store and the bike rental [Applause] sit the mountains and clear it off since this morning they were covered in clouds and storms it looks like well all except for Gregory bald it's still got its top in the clouds okay we've stopped off here at the Cades Cove Methodist Church one of the three churches still standing in the cove an interesting feature of this church is it's got two doors in the front not sure why two doors nonetheless [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Shaughnessy is going to sit down and do a beautiful rendition of picture him amazing great dude what am I doing Blessed Assurance there is a fountain whatever you want to do get down there and tickle the ivories go ahead if I could yeah I'll try you take piano lessons yeah [Music] yeah I've not noticed that before it's a shame they have to do that I guess that's cause of people who can't refrain from writing on their names on it and stuff yeah that is that is a new addition right there I've never noticed those cameras before [Applause] this is what we were talking about earlier in the video with the Pearl Harbor Tree if someone has served in the uh one of the branches of the Armed Forces people leave money on their Monument right here [Applause] I'm not sure what that's supposed to signify but somebody else I've seen people ask that question on Facebook and that's the answer that and it seems like everyone you do see it on it somebody that served in the armed forces so this is sort of a sad one here uh infant mortality was a thing back in the Cove in the early days before they had you have access to you know good hospitals and good medicine three three infants right here that they lost actually consecutive years they original headstones here and somebody and the Schuler family obviously has this little section here um this one over here I don't know if you'll be able to see it Dan Schuler I think he um he passed away like right before we came we came on your Memorial Day and he either passed away right before right after we were here and I can't get close enough with this zoom on this camera to see those dates or not but he was just a young man I want to say 19 20 21 years old at most not sure what happened picture come off yeah and if it was just the glare from the Evening Sun this is the grave of Arthur Randolph Shields who wrote the book The Cades Cove story which you can still buy in any of the visitor centers I actually have the book and uh I think he was born in Kate's Cove and his ancestors grew up here he gives a lot of good information about their customs and the way they lived so if you're interested in history especially the history of the Cove that's a good book to pick up oh what was that whenever the Corn Harvest will come in once in a while uh I guess just due to cross-pollination there would be a red ear of corn and if a young man found a red ear of corn then he got to kiss the woman of his choosing assuming I guess she didn't already have a husband that probably wouldn't have gone over well but um he got to kiss the woman of his choosing if he found a red ear of corn so I don't know if she had any say in the matter or not it didn't say she did but that's in the book so um another thing do you remember I've read you this one before too what how what did the kids use to uh play with they used it as a kickball pig bladder pig bladder when they would kill Hogs uh it's called weather set in um they said the pig's bladder you could hang it and dry it out and it became real rubbery and tough and they could blow it up then and they could use it for a kickball or a dodgeball or whatever that was how they um had fun back in those days so all kinds of neat stories like that it's amazing what they could do then compared to what kids nowadays yeah and um it tells a lot of different stuff you know how they lived how they prepared food for the winter um how they um if someone passed away how everybody would join together and um help prepare you know for the viewing I got that one's got a lot on there yeah yeah somebody's been here a long time okay for about the past 20 minutes we've been stuck in a bear Jam and I'll go ahead and say what causes bear jams is um well right as you enter the cove and a couple other places throughout the kovic or signs posted that Clearly say be courteous no stopping in the road use pull-offs um either not everybody knows how to read or not everybody thinks that that applies to them but you always have people when there's a bear they will literally stop in the road get out of their cars and go look at the bear and stay there till it leaves no matter if there's 200 cars behind them so that's kind of what we're in right now have been for about 20 minutes because somebody's somewhere up there uh is not following the rules so there's all kinds of places you can pull to the side and get out and not hold up traffic but you know people don't do it so might as well take in some of the beauty of the Cove in the evening this is the Overlook we were at this morning a lot of that was covered in clouds this morning but the sun's starting to go down to the west and this really looks nice out there tonight so at least there is the view to sit here and look at and that's how far back the bear Jam goes who came to see the end of it on either side there are people getting impatient blowing their horns and we'll move a little bit and then stop again but who knows how far back it goes to we may be in the middle of it for all I know now those mountains out there in the distance um I'm not one thousand percent sure which is I think it's this one here a place called Spence field I know those mountains there in the background are Thunderhead Rocky Top and Spence field I'm not sure which one's just that one there looks like it's a field on top so I'm gonna go with that one but there's a really sad uh story uh there have been several uh unsolved disappearances in the Great Smoky Mountains and one of those disappearances happened back in the 1950s a little boy named Dennis Martin you can go on YouTube and watch uh people give their thoughts on what happened to him uh you can Google it it's one of the Mysteries of the Smokies that's never been solved a little boy was hiking with his family and think another family that went with him and they turned around for just a minute and he was gone and never was seen again he was wearing red and there was another family that was interviewed later and they said that they saw like a a mountain person type uh person maybe live way back in the woods and wasn't really civilized uh carrying something over their shoulder that was red so that's one theory that some maybe some feral Mountain person maybe got him other people say there was an animal that got him but if I'm not mistaken the Green Berets were even called in to search for him and uh never a clue was found and um that's that's one of the sad thing that happened that happened but it happened right up there and um there's a lot of interesting things that have happened here another one not here in Kate's Cove but over in Elkmont just outside of Gatlinburg a man by the name of William Bradford Bishop basically killed his wife and children and then fled from Maryland to eastern North Carolina and then he came over to the smokies and abandoned his car at Elkmont Campground he's never been seen or heard from since so um some really interesting stuff has happened here but I just while we were sitting here looking I happened to be a thing about that little Dennis Martin story I think he was eight years old when he vanished and he was up there on top of that Ridge and was never seen again and we are still in the bear Jam folks this is the longest one probably we've ever been in I don't know how far up it goes I can see cars all the way up there no telling how far and like I say next summer Lord will and if our health is still good and the weather permits third weekend of June we've been doing birthday hikes around my birthday every year now for a while and that's going to be our next one uh that's when the azaleas are in bloom up there they don't Bloom up that high up until the middle of June so we were up there back in 2016 and you won't believe how many of them there are up there how many different colors there are they're up there by the Millions it's almost like going through a little Enchanted Forest when they're when you just walk amongst them like that but uh if y'all are still following us by June of next year and hopefully some more people will be but then too we're gonna hopefully bring you a vlog from the top of that mountain it's a tough hike I've done it before twice the second time like to kill me because I was really out of shape I mean worse than I am now but I believe I can do it so we just did Mount LeConte I can do lecont I can do that one folks there is a bear I just saw him pop his head up I don't see him at the moment but he is right below that tree and that Thicket seeing movement of the uh weeds but I'm not seeing the bear yet you see the movement up there I saw his head all right we got a bear coming now and the red truck is obviously going to sit here until it goes so it may cross the road if we're lucky no coming back this way now I don't know if you can see his head or not huh I can't hear you see it yeah it's like a zigzagging back and forth uh going these four I hope I'm getting that I can't see it on the camera screen it's going back that way now that wasn't a great shot of it I hope I got that hoping it would come out into the part that's mowed but it seems very content to stay in the weeds there should maybe be able to see it a little bit now not not a great shot and it's disappearing up into the woods now all right everybody's pointing up in a tree here oh I think I do see it yeah all right I'll see the movement I don't actually see the bear itself [Applause] I left up here down I don't actually see the bear itself yet I just see movement of your trees I see the limb yeah he's pulling that brass like he broke the branch off he's pulling it [Applause] um yes I see the dragonflies anyway the sun's casting a little bit of a glow or a little bit of a pink orange color back over there to the east thank you just saw another big bear up in the woods that weren't able to get him on the video because it was so dark make him out okay finally made it through the Cove gotta nice fire burning now some of the wisest sayings and thoughts that have ever come out of a human I come from Chelsea sitting around a campfire so she's gonna share some of her my wisdom yes put me on the spot drawn a blank well we'll have to get back to you on this one again okay I think she's ready life is short make all the memories you can with those that you love profound folks but it's true yeah it is true so I told you folks you don't get that for her except when there's a campfire and she's relaxed and she uh a lot of this comes just comes to her meditating [Music] so anyway we're back at the campground had a really good weather day except for just a couple little it actually rained at the other end of The Cove but didn't rain much in the campground just a couple little just yes a little drizzles yeah enough to make us get up and pack our stuff up then it would quit so all right we're just relaxing a little bit before bedtime Campground is full now it was not full as of this morning but we've had family move in next to us already had somebody on the other side of us when we got here [Music] the sounds of nature the fire is hot families laughing kids having sex tomorrow night we don't have any big elaborate meal planned we're going to cook breakfast in the morning I think and then basically just roast some weenies over the fire I think tomorrow evening foreign [Music] other insects wherever they may be [Music] here we are at the Primitive Baptist Church in Cades Cove now you have to detour off of the main loop road to get to this one you have to make a left turn there'll be a little wooden sign it's about what half a mile down that road quarter mile [Applause] Road you have to if you've got two-way traffic you may have to pull over and let somebody buy [Applause] [Music] [Applause] it let me get my paperwork here it's been several years foreign [Music] I knew that [Music] foreign [Music] excited I can't do it because I have an individual stream for each note so if my instrument's in tune sounded like a pro without my eyes just crisp ers [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] we're going to walk around the cemetery here but the Cades Cove Primitive Baptist Church was organized June 16 1827. so basically it's 195 years old [Applause] [Applause] we've been in there before when that gentleman was playing the what is that instrument he's playing they have yeah I didn't recognize what it was it wasn't really a violin well it was similar to a violin it sounded like one but yeah but we've been here before when he's playing he does a really good job [Applause] one of this like I pointed out last night one of the sad things in these cemeteries is the high rate of infant and children uh mortality there's a lot of it back in those days there's some very opens here [Applause] all right yesterday we were at the John Oliver cabin and here is where he lays here in the Primitive Baptist Church he was six 71 when he passed away depending on the month he was born doesn't say foreign looking back at the Primitive Baptist Church all right we are now at the Missionary Baptist Church be our third and final uh Church stop in the cove and it was founded in 1839. all right here's the cemetery for the Missionary Baptist Church they're actually it looked like a youth group or something holding a service in there yeah so didn't want to interrupt that here's another one with some money on top [Applause] now this last line of graves here each one of them has a bush of some sort painting behind it my wife says she remembers that I don't we've been through this Cemetery I don't know how many times I don't remember ever seeing that before she says she does so it's interesting [Applause] I don't know what the significance of that is okay now here Visitor Center water snake poking his head out here [Applause] really okay thank you [Applause] what kind of snake was it that was a copperhead he just said that was a copperhead I don't it had the markings of one but it didn't have the head of one there's a water there's a water state it looks like a copperhead I think I might have to go back and look I think that was a water snake a copperhead has more of a spade shaped head that one didn't seem to hit there is a water state that looks um and maybe Hawaii came and got it I thought it was a copperhead I don't know and down there I heard a guy talking he's agreeing with me it wasn't really that was not a copperhead I gotta look at the head again on the video but it looked like a water snake to me that had the markings of the copperhead um they're they are easy to confuse so I guess he's releasing it over there so usually you find the snakes behind the doorway there you don't usually find them looking out right out at you so here in a minute when it clears we'll go see if we can find one behind the door well there was no snake behind the door this time that's a first so at least we got to see the other one there there's a little lizard but anyway this is the uh Becky cable house here in the Cades Cove Visitors Center this is halfway through the loop and they've got some molasses making going on up there not really making it right at the moment but I think we're gonna watch a little bit of molasses being made here or at least the grinding part he's going to get in some stalks now [Applause] it's already starting to go somebody said what keeps that fuel going did you like training away tell her to do it and then make her do it I'm here to tell you from experience I had better luck with the meal I have the wife ain't that the truth there's no back talk on that meal so you got the contents going down thank you so you know what I say I said the first thing we'll have to do is put a fit in your mouth you went downhill from there he just talked about his wife he said his wife told him I didn't have the camera on but his wife told him that if uh if he treated her as good as he treated the mule then she might do more so he said the first thing he told us he's gonna put a pit in her mouth and it went downhill from there this guy maybe why are you married her he made a comment before I got the camera turned on he says the way you get him started he says same way you do your wife you just tell her what to do he says of course the mule mine's better I didn't say that y'all he did the guy sitting in the chair I'm just feeling everything yeah I don't think this camera is going to zoom enough but we got a bear and a tree out here foreign moved a little bit on a different angle and move a little bit and that's it foreign [Music] I'm always sad when this trip comes to an end but we're taking a final drive through Cades Cove on a little bit of a rainy evening it's not raining hard it's sprinkling just a little bit and I'll say this about Cades Cove it's one of those places that's pretty even in the rain obviously you'd prefer it not to rain but when it does um it still has a beauty to it with the clouds and the mountains in the background and so I'm gonna have to turn the wipers on so our dog is at attention we've had to hit him a few times [Music] y'all watch this [Music] he's not going to act up too much since he's being recorded yeah it's still bothering him a little bit he has done that ever since we've had him just put them all really fast all right I'll cut them off [Music] okay we're gonna take a ride down Hyatt Lane and I'm gonna try to come back and get on the loop I always like riding down this road when it's raining or it has rained see what a scenery there is to see [Applause] [Applause] folks that was a first I had just pulled off the side of the road here on Hyatt Lane and this little pull-off area that video I was recording and I heard something hit the truck and came in and hit my leg and it was an acorn now I don't know how that happened because I've got the little window shield right here so we thought maybe there was a bear in the tree above us there is not had to get out and look but I don't know I don't know how that happened there is a tree right above us somehow an acorn found out of that tree and landed inside the truck on the driver's side I don't even know how that's possible but it did so one of them things you can't explain I guess it happened we thought a truck had gone by a truck to rock off of us but I said no he hit my leg in the trunk looked down the floorboard and there's Acorn yeah yeah so oh well you tell me how an acorn Falls from that branch right here's my truck how does it fall and come in the driver's side window no explanation for that one anyway let's move on [Applause] hold off again here on Hyatt Lane this is one of the most beautiful sections of Cades Cove in the rain because you see the fog and the Mist on the mountainsides beautiful place well so much for my theory that the rain keeps crowds away um that is not the case this evening it was the case whatever even was raining Friday evening that really kept the crowds down but tonight not so much very slow moving right now makes me wonder there's a bear that's been up in a tree the same tree probably the same bear for two straight nights makes me wonder if he's back up there and people are kind of slowing down to see him but again Cades Cove has a beauty even in the storm and um really I just love those clouds out there like that even though you can't really see the higher mountains you can see the clouds covering them up and that's that's pretty in its own right okay one final View From The Overlook which again is probably the best view of the Cove or the most expansive View popular photo spot okay because of this traffic jam you see we have decided on the spur of the moment that we're going to hike to the Elijah Oliver Place half a mile walk so if you're really bite by the time that moves anyway so stop this nice view along the path and down there that not so nice of you all right so here we have a trail Junction to the left here is wet bottom Trail and straight on to the Elijah Oliver places okay we have made it the half a mile to the Elijah Oliver place he didn't want to be bothered obviously because he's a pretty good little walk off of the Loop Road and look over here a couple other structures and to be honest with you comparatively speaking hit a pretty good sized place uh I'll say that in relation to some of the other uh cabins on the Loop Road here much bigger than John Oliver I don't know what relation they would have been I don't know if they were brothers or if Elijah was his son I had to look at that I used to know I don't know now but lines have been pretty good sized place here it's a lot bigger than some of the other ones isn't it it is you had to go up those steps into the cabin let's see oh yeah don't short Norway actually very short ceiling too oh there could be snakes like these wooden structures you don't bother it won't bother you yeah probably can't see much it's very dark in here yeah if you want to shine that light or the fireplace Little Wonders there and an upstairs that we can't go up so this is the trail back yeah it's easy walk I mean it's half a mile but good night that's easy because it's not really strenuous this is about the biggest uphill part of it right here come back across High Lane and I had a good shot of a deer but it kind of got spooked yeah it is it's still moving too nobody didn't hurt him and that's not that's actually not barbed wire okay well it is getting dark the sun has gone down we are at the Dan Lawson cabin and just getting a few of the many many golden rods that are in bloom right now in Cades Cove uh here at his cabin there's a lot of them right here but they're all over the Cove this time of year early September you hear the crickets and here's the Dan Lawson cabin honestly Cades Cove is just indescribable even at night it has a whole different atmosphere and yeah feel than it does in the daytime beautiful Serene and to be honest with you a little bit what's the word I'm looking for yeah a little bit uh I don't mind telling you when you go into these dark cabins at night uh I don't believe in ghosts at all I believe people pass away and they they go into eternity either in heaven or hell like the Bible says uh but you just kind of you get a weird feeling and some of these old cabins at night time we always make it a point to go to the Carter Shields cabinet last night here because it's always dark and we did have a little bit of an experience in there a couple years back and I won't say who was scared and red house first no I was going out to make sure the vehicle doors open for you that's all that's all it was um anyway somebody forgot to latch the door that was going upstairs and for some reason it was a delayed thing it didn't just come back open it waited like two minutes so we'd forgot about it next thing we know the door comes open yeah and uh like I say I just wanted to make sure that I figured she was already out there so he was oh actually I was just trying to scare her into running okay well this concludes our um Cades Cove camping trip three nights um got poured on last night rain the rain that we thought was coming finally came um truthfully I would rather it rain any night except our last night yeah because you have to put all your stuff up wet and dirty and all that stuff so um but it is what it is we were figuring it up our last four camping trips it has rained our last night there um so so we've got a job ahead of us unpacking all this wet stuff but we did stay dry that's the thing yeah I did the tarp a lot better this time we did we didn't get a drop of rain on us in the tent um but Chelsea give your thoughts about the camping trip how was it overall the camper trip was very good I mean I had a good relaxing time um all the food we ate was good we had you know delicious food um going through the coat was nice I mean yesterday was kind of a overcast drizzly day it was just kind of like we were saying kind of just an aggravating rain a little bit it's but it rained more out of the Cove than it did in the campground yeah it just kind of rained it up the campground just to wet the top of everything but it didn't really cause us any problems no it didn't cause us any problems um but my cam trip I I enjoyed it had a relaxing time no complaints I saw what six spares and then at the very end of the loop in the dark we saw two Cubs never did see the mom but you know she's close by yeah they were getting ready to climb a tree and then when they saw us come around yeah we were one of the last ones out of the Cove last night there was just like two or three other cars behind us and um too coyote yeah we had just remarked we had not seen a single coyote and then saw one within two minutes after that and then saw baby coyote yeah a little tiny guy yeah I was kind of feeling sorry for him I don't know why but I don't know just because he was little they start out little then they get um but all in all a good time Cades Cove was very pretty even in the rain you'll see some of that on the video I'm one of these I love the different looks that the mountains can give you um even after a storm there's just a beauty to them with as the Mist Rises a lot of flowers a lot of purple I think it's called an iron weed or iron flower and the yellow ones are golden rods I'm sure of that so um all in all um overall good trip yeah so we're going back into Pigeon Forge now we're supposed to meet up with uh some people we subscribe to and they subscribe to us so um not sure I haven't messaged in a couple days because we've been out here you don't have good sales service in case Kobe you don't have any in fact um so we're gonna go into Townsend a message and see if they're still going to meet up with us um not sure how that's gonna um if they are or not yet until we find out what their plans are but anyway um gonna find us some lunch yeah so I hope you enjoyed this video this was just a little miscellaneous clip here and there of the various things we did so um we had a good time though yeah we did so if y'all like this video um like And subscribe and I'll just go ahead and say now it's probably going to be several weeks before we do anything else uh we got October coming up we'll be doing some things in October The Fall season but um if you don't see anything from us we and we appreciate this and honestly once in a while if we go a couple of weeks people ask us if we're okay and I appreciate the fact that you miss us when we're uh but we're going to take a couple of weeks and you know get some work done and thank you got a lot still yet to do as far as with moms you know so be looking for us again in October that's not saying we won't eat out or something from now and then it may be doing we'll try to do something small here and there yeah but nothing major until October and then we're going to show you some of our beautiful mountains in the fall and then we'll be it'll be a busy month for us yes it will so um thank you all for watching uh like And subscribe and find us on Facebook and have a blessed day

Channel: NCMemoryMakers

Views: 110,678

Keywords:

Id: FeAw4IwzxC0

Length: 91min 57sec (5517 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 16 2022