Today was our day to add another National Park to our visited list. Great Smokey Mountains National Park has some spectacular scenery. We enjoyed the beauty of the mountains and Little River flowing by. Happily, we had no close encounters with the bear population. According to staff at the visitor center, the bears have been very active and are finding their way into unlocked cars and trucks. Peggy did see a turkey though.

Our route to the park took us through Pigeon Forge, TN which is home to the Dollywood Amusement Park. All along the road from I 40 to the park entrance are tourist accommodations, restaurants, amusement centers and other services catering to tourists. Even though we are on a week day between the summer season and “leaf peeping” season, we were amazed at the traffic and number of people both in the park and Pigeon Forge.

After enjoying the wonderful scenery of the park, we picked up dinner and headed back to our lodging. We relaxed in the comfy outdoor seating and read our story. As the day was coming to a close, we had our picnic dinner while watching the sunset.