Today we cross the park and spend the night in Elkmont campground on the Tennessee side.

Thomas Ridge Trail

We stopped at a pullout on Thomas Ridge to do a morning hike in the woods. We had the trail to ourselves which was lovely! The plant diversity that the Smokies are known for was on display along this trail.

Very busy drive to Elkmont

We traveled through some tunnels and enjoyed the beautiful scenery on our way to Elkmont. The popular hikes off the main road were all too crowded for us to stop—no parking to be had. There was a line over a mile long of cars just waiting to get from the Fighting Creek Gap Rd back out onto Highway 441 at the Sugarland Visitor Center. Bad intersection – hopefully better in the morning when we have to go this way.

Elkmont Campground

Laurel Falls trail near Elkmont is closed for repair, but the campground has a short nature trail that we enjoyed this evening. The trees are a little thicker here than in Smokemont, which means our dish signal is not reliable for internet service. A huge Eastern Cedar towers over Usain in our spot. The camp sites are larger and more spread out and the bathrooms more numerous than our previous campground.

The Great Smokies park has no restaurants or camp stores with showers. Rather than fight traffic to Gatlinburg in hopes of finding a place to purchase showers, Tony helped me wash my hair with Usain’s shower head working around the litter-box-in-the-bathroom obstacle.