Day 9 - On the road home.

We left Randy and Sue around 9AM and headed north.  We have never really experienced the Smoky Mountains, so we pointed our little caravan towards Knoxville, TN with no real plan on where would stop or what we might see. The weather was quite nice, our travel was pretty easy without traffic issues and we had our meals on the road. 

Lunch in RT

Our typical rest stop on the road.

We drove until we reached the entrance to the Smoky Mountain National Park and picked a campground, pretty much at random. We made a good choice, we stayed at a KOA - Great Smokies in Townsend, TN. The people were very nice and suggested a wildlife loop in the park that we could complete before dark,

So off we headed to the Cades Cove Loop Road.  This is about 10 miles of one way road through the park that winds through swtich backs and hills with old buildings (cabins and churches). The wildlife on the loop is abundant, we saw 100's of deer, 2 bears, Turkey's and what we think was a coyote and the scenery was amazing. 

Deer everywhere you looked. 

And spectacular views.

This view was from the porch of one of the original cabins, it is pretty easy to see why people decided to live here. 

We think this guy was a coyote, but pretty large, could it be a wolf?

As we exited Cades Cove the sun was setting, the views could not really be captured by camera, at least with my skill....but they were godly. 

We headed back to camp and had a nice dinner and campfire, it was a long day of driving (about 500 miles) but we capped it with a very nice and relaxing sample of what the Great Smoky Mountains are all about.