Our 30th Anniversary - Cataloochee in the Great Smoky Mountains - Elk - Haunted Old House?

 Years of hopes and plans had fallen through. We did not have a big celebration with many friends and family. We didn't renew our vows or rent out a large cabin to host everyone for the weekend. We didn't even get each other a gift. Such is life though, abundance one moment - struggle to make ends meet, the next.

Instead, we managed to fill our gas tank and headed to an area of the Smokies we'd never been to before. Cataloochee. 

We were going to stop along the way in a little town and visit an apple orchard for cider and apples and fried apple pies, but they were closed on Tuesdays. The pumpkin patch we wanted to visit was also closed on Tuesdays. So, we decided we'd do them on the next day, and just let Cataloochee be our only focus for the day. 

Monday night, I had started chicken and dumplings in the crock pot. Tuesday, we got up and put the dumplings in the crockpot, had some breakfast, and took care of the animals.  We also went out looking for Sophie, as I mentioned in my previous post. After the dumplings had cooked about an hour, we put the crockpot insert into our Wonderbag  (not an affiliate link), some drinks into the cooler, and headed out. We stopped for a couple of snacks for the drive, and turned on the next Louise Penny mystery on audible. 

We drove to Cosby, TN and took the offshoot of the Foothills Parkway to I-40 and then the 26 or so miles to the Cataloochee entrance road. That road is no joke. It quickly turns into dirt and gravel, and though usually wide enough for two cars, there are several blind curves. It took quite a while to finally get to the Cataloochee Valley, but it was so worth the drive!

The sky was the most brilliant true blue, and the leaves were just before peak, and many were falling all around us. 

The historic buildings of the community have been very well preserved. 

The leaves were nice and crunchy. If there had been a pile of them, I feel like I would have jumped in it!

There were only a few other people around. Its much different than Cades Cove on the other side of the Smokies, where there can be bumper to bumper cars and crowds of people at each stop. 

Here, we were able to take our time and explore and just soak in the day and the setting. I couldn't help but imagine what life would have been like in places like this big beautiful home. The staircase inside showed the wear of feet going up and down it for generations. I could almost hear the laughter of children and conversations of the adults. 

The road here is not a loop like in Cades Cove, and it dead ended at a trail head, well it was more like an old dirt road really, which turned quite rocky at the end. 

There were several crossings over the creek with log bridges like this. One was quite high. 

At the end of the road like trail was another home. It was beautiful and so secluded. This place reminds me of so many of those off-grid folks I watch on YouTube, living in cabins out in the middle of the Canadian wilderness or somewhere like that. But these are huge, grand homes compared to some of those cabins. 

Of course we had to do a selfie on the porch. 

Christopher was a little tired from the one mile walk to this last house, the Woody Place, so I went in and explored upstairs alone.  I marveled at the size of the rooms. They were really big. We were the only people there, which made it very quiet, and the lighting of it being near evening in the woods made it quite eerie.. and when I got to the foot of the stairs, about to head out the door, I heard footsteps in the room above my head. I even asked Christopher if someone else had shown up while I was upstairs, and he said no, we were the only ones there. 

Then it was time to head back down the road. The trail does continue past the house to numbered campsites. Though one was closed due to "aggressive bear activity". On our way back, we actually passed a couple and their dog who were definitely headed to a campsite, once with a backpack and a blanket wrapped around him and the other carrying bags of supplies, including stuff for s'mores. Makes me wish we'd done more things like that when we were their age. 

When we finally got back to the car, we set up a couple of camp chairs and got the Wonderbag out. The chicken and dumplings were still piping hot, though they'd been in the car for about 6 or 7 hours. I was given the Wonderbag as a gift from a friend, and highly recommend them to anyone. This is the link to buy from their site when they're in stock. I wish I'd thought to get a pic of the food, but we were just living in the moment and not worrying about documenting it. I did get the above photo before we left though.  That field was our view while we ate a delicious hot dinner. Farther down the field, there was an Elk buck, but he can't be seen in this photo. 

As we drove back up the road toward the entrance, dusk was just settling in, and the Elk had come out to graze. Its at the end of rutting season, but we still heard one buck yelling out his call which echoed across the valley. 

It was a nice relaxing drive back, despite having to take the twisty turny dirt road and then interstate. Listening to the Inspector Gamache mystery was the perfect ending to this perfect Fall day. 

I'll post again soon about the next day when we finally made it to the apple orchard and pumpkin patch. 

Overall, it was a wonderful anniversary. We enjoyed just being in each other's company, and that lovely familiarity of knowing each other so well for so long. 

I hope you have a wonderful day, and I hope you'll click around in the archive to stories I have told over the years of this blog, and perhaps come back to read more in the future. 

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