Elk and views

Today we woke up early to drive 2 hours to Cataloochee in Smoky Mountain National Park to see the elk in the valley. The trip was about 30-40 miles, but the last 10 or so were on a winding one-lane dirt road with no guardrails all the way up and over the mountain.

Yesterday we had some car trouble after climbing a big mountain and got stuck in Waynesville for an hour or so. By the grace of God or good karma we rented the last car, a Ford Explorer, at the Enterprise that was only open for another hour. The nice lady at the desk called Earl at his garage and he said to bring the car right over. Otherwise we were going to have to have it towed to the Volkswagon dealership in Asheville and maybe never make it to the cabin. But we did make it to check in to our cabin see the gorgeous sunset view.



Today was great. After finding a few elk at Cataloochee and waking up at 5:30 a.m., we drove back on the Blue Ridge Parkway to hike and see Waterrock Knob and a little bit of remaining snow. It is the second highest point on the Parkway, and it was beautiful. But hot! It was 74 degrees at the top of the mountain. And the car thermometer read 90 degrees in town.
We had dinner in Bryson City after hiking a few more waterfalls at Deep Creek. Then we drove up the Road to Nowhere into the park. I would write more but we're exhausted. More pics to come soon!