Smokin’
April 1, 2023 – Day 45
When we pulled into Indian Creek Campground last night we were too frazzled to really look around, but this morning, wow, this is a nice place. Here’s the no-fishing creek from across our site. (I didn’t include the dumpster in the picture, LOL, oh come on, camps have to put the dumpsters somewhere.)
See? Much better without the dumpster. But seriously, this is a really nice campground, one of the best we’ve stayed out. We’ll add this to our “visit again” list.
What’s up with the “fishing” and “no fishing” creeks? Well, we forgot to tell you, we left the United States yesterday. We are now in the Cherokee Nation. Actually there aren’t any national boundaries and we didn’t need a passport to cross the border, but yeah, we’re not in the US, we’re in the Not US. Oh, and the Cherokee decide where you can fish or not fish.
Most signs are in English and Cherokee.
(ᏍᏈᏍᏓ ᎤᏍᏆᏂᎪᏗ ᏚᎸᏫᏍᏓᏁᎸ ᎠᎴ ᎠᏂᏣᎳᎩ ᎠᏁᎯ ᎠᎴ ᏣᎳᎩ ᎠᏁᎯ ᏣᎳᎩ ᎠᏁᎯ ᎠᎴ ᏣᎳᎩ ᎠᏁᎯ.)
We stopped in at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center to ask about birding. Their website says to stay in the lowland this time of year. I asked where that was, which, in retrospect is a very stupid question, since the lowlands are not the mountain tops. But the nice docent show us several easy trials we could hike to find birds in the lowlands.
Route 441 was closed today, and yesterday, due to high winds. But that’s ok, we weren’t planing on doing that road today. That’s the scary road we spoke of yesterday, it is the main north/south route through the Great Smokies. We weren’t planning on avoiding it entirely just avoiding it on the weekend.
So we wanted to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway and it started right there. This is kind of neat since the route was already loaded in my iPad GPS (running Gaia GPS) and part of the Mid-Atlantic Back Country Discovery Route. The BDR is an off-road/back road set of routes for adventure motorcycles. We’ve driven a lot of the New England BDR in both our Jeep and Subaru. The start of the BDR down here is all paved and it was beautiful.
We stopped at every overlook but I’m not showing you because the pictures were boring compared to what’s coming, but seriously, this is pretty country. We weren’t even in the “good” part of the park and it was stunning.
But paved? Ha! I found some dirt. Susan drove this part. All of it, up and down.
I found a place for my ham radio antennas.
And we found the outhouse with a view.
Then Susan had to drive down. Be sure to watch the trees in the background, the winds were intense, so strong at time it was pushing the Subaru around without the trailer! (susan here: it was definitely scarier than it looked or that I let on. Especially going up as I got the “vertigo view” while trying to decide how to drive. Not a fabulous combination. But we survived. Obviously. Or our ghosts are very talented.) [ghost here: we’re very talented.]
Soon we were back on the parkway proper and we were rewarded with a killer view. Word just don’t describe it, neither do pictures. You all just need to visit here on your way to Carlsbad.
The Smokies get their name from the bluish haze in the air.
What causes the smoke?
That famous fog that surrounds the Smoky Mountains actually is produced by native vegetation in the area. You probably learned in school that plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. However, plants let out more than just oxygen. They release something called volatile organic compounds.
This may sound bad or dangerous, but it’s not! They are totally natural! These chemicals have a high vapor pressure and in the right environment form the vapors or fog that you see. With millions of plants and trees in the Smoky Mountains they all give off of these vapors that cause the “smokey” appearance.
Why is it blue?
Not only do volatile organic compounds explain the foggy appearance, but they are also the reason for the blue tint. When vegetation from the area releases vapors the molecules in it scatter blue light from the sky. The Cherokee called this phenomenon “blue smoke.” While this type of thing happens in forests throughout the country it is particularly visible in the Smokies. The Smoky Mountains get a lot of rain and sunlight, excessive humidity, and have stagnant air. Put all of that together and you have the perfect conditions for blue smoke to very visible and bright.
https://smokymountainnationalpark.com/blog/why-are-the-smoky-mountains-smokey/
We were particularly lucky in that we’ve just had a lot of rain so the haze was denser than usual. The day after, which is when this is being written was much clearer. (Yesterday is happening the day after, the day after will happen tomorrow, unless we decide to write about it today. I really doubt we’ll write about tomorrow today.)
Oh, I may have mentioned that we’re near Franklin NC where I vacationed as a child. The family went gem hunting as an activity. There are all sorts of gem hunting places downtown each trying to out do the other. My brother got a huge star sapphire. He sent me a photo!
It can’t be polished because it is full of fissures and it will just fracture into dust. 173 ct!