12/20/2011
Our final stop on our way home took us briefly into North Carolina to the entrance of the Smoky Mountains. Highway 441 ensures a safe drive all the way through the imposing mountain range.
I never quite understood the name before, but now that I’ve seen them with my own eyes I get it now. Natural vapor released from the trees truly creates a mist that looks like smoke. At one point the “smoke” got so thick as we rose through the mountains we couldn’t see a car just a few feet ahead of us. We stopped along the road along the way and when we got out of the car we noticed an odor we couldn’t place. It had a slight sulphur tinge. This only added to the strangeness of the environment.
We traveled the entire route from one side of the range to the exit in Gatlingburg, Tennessee. All along we were unnerved by the eeriness of these strange mountains – the mist and the smell and the dark, unforgiving rocks. All nature is beautiful, and the Smoky Mountains are no exception – but there is something mysterious about these mountains that even the comfortable highway couldn’t cut through.
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