We next planned to camp at
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but it wasn’t too far to stop at Tallulah
Gorge State Park on the way.
We hitched our trailer and
followed our GPS. We had one moment where we made a split second decision to
ignore the GPS’s turn onto a dirt road (the fastest way is not always the best
way when pulling a trailer) and we watched the transmission temperature climb
as we went up a twisty mountain pass, but we made it there just fine and we
were glad to see the park had a few RV-sized parking spots (another thing to
think about when pulling a trailer).
The park has a nice Interpretive Center where we got information on the
best way to view the gorge and its 5 waterfalls. We took the 2-mile Hurricane
Falls Loop starting from the Interpretive
Center. 10 scenic vistas
line the trail with signs that explain the view.
 |
L’Eau d’Or Falls
and Hawthorne Pool
|
The loop includes the South
Rim and North Rim Trails and is connected on one end by a road bridge over the
dam and on the other end by a suspension footbridge. To get to the suspension
bridge one has to go down 310 steps. So we headed down.
 |
Bill on suspension bridge
|
We went down an additional
221 steps to view Hurricane
Falls.
To continue on we had to go
up those 221 steps and climb another 347 steps to the other rim. That’s a lot
of steps!
We stopped at the overlooks
and took the bridge over the dam. Its small spillway forms a man-made waterfall.
Who is that in the
reflection taking a picture of the sign?
Tightrope walker Karl
Wallenda used this tower to walk across the gorge in 1970 – gorge depth 700
feet. We preferred taking the trail with all those stairs.
 |
| Wallenda’s tower |
Bill added another ½-mile
round-trip 221ft elevation hike to Inspiration Point. Barbara could see him in
the distance.
 |
| view of gorge and Oceana Falls from Inspiration Point |
A gorge-ous day!
Camped at: Smokemont
Campground, Great Smoky Mountains
National Park NC
Distance to Tallulah Gorge
from Unicoi State Park: 30miles 42min
Distance to Great Smoky Mountains National Park from Unicoi via Tallulah
Gorge: 102miles 2h10min
