New-ish Parking Pass System

Apparently, National Parks do have some leeway to do their own thing; the Smokies have instituted a parking pass system in which one is free to drive through the park, but required to have a pass to take up a parking spot for more than 15 minutes. Everyone seems to be a bit confused by this, but the system was put in place over two years ago. This incredibly busy park needed a new source of funds for maintenance, and this was their way of getting it.

“I stop traffic now.” – Bull Elk

We started our day driving back to the visitor center to get this needed parking pass when traffic suddenly got really slow like it does in Yellowstone and Custer State Park. Sure enough, there was a male elk walking on the road and I was able to get some video of him walking beside the road.

At 9:30 am, the visitor center was busy and there was a line for the pass kiosk. I was still in line when a woman came out of the building and told all of us this was a free parking day. So we left without this pass, but did return later in the day to get one for the week. Maybe the government shutdown is preventing policing of this policy, but this wasn’t a “free” day according to their calendar. So we will be legit from here on out.

Mingus Mill

Our first hike was to drive to Mingus Mill which is between the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and our campground. It’s named after a jazz musician family that lived here and it was the only water-powered grist mill in the area. “You didn’t make it without corn…everyone ate cornmeal sometimes two and three times a day,” said a local resident. The mill is still operational for park visitors during the summer months.

One Bad Turn Adventure

For our next hike, we chose to drive to the relatively nearby Deep Creek Campground for a three-waterfall hike. Bonus prizes. But first, hind sight says to be careful of following Google Maps. To get to Deep Creek, one must leave the park and drive through Bryson City, a very busy shopping area today. Trying to avoid the town perhaps, Google sent me on a single-lane gravel road, Old River Road, that turned out to be quite busy from both directions. After stopping to “make” two vehicles coming toward me back up, I got out to make sure it was just a small scrape I heard as I went over railroad tracks on a slant. No damage, but clearly we can’t continue on this crazy road. Tony saved the day by making a magnificent multi-point turn around using the base of a narrow driveway to do it while I helped keep traffic at bay and then using the Grumpy Bear campground to avoid even more cars.

Rather than let my fiasco stop our hike, Tony continued to drive a better route to the campground where parking was a premium, but we found a spot. Again, we got questions about the parking pass; we must look like we hike here all the time.

Deep Creek Trail

The hike to see these three waterfalls was really good, and not nearly as crowded as the busy parking lot led us to expect. Of course it helps when we did the entire loop and the uphill spots space everyone out.