May 31 2012, Little Cataloochee, NC

Parts of the families moved to the next valley, the Little Cataloochee. We had to hike 6 miles to see their houses.

flame azaleas

white flowers, Hannah Cabin-it was the first cabin in the area

John on the porch of the Hannah Cabin and inside, notice how wide the boards are, from the huge trees here

 

creek, Little Cataloochee church

Little Cataloochee church graveyard, tiger swallowtail on a flame azalea

fire pink

Cook cabin. The makers of log cabin syrup paid to restore this cabin

Apple house. They had  huge apple orchards, a sawmill, grist mill, store, blacksmith shop, wood working shop, stockyard and several farms. During apple harvest apples were graded, and stored inside inside the apple house. The remains of a  stone wall.

Venus’s looking glass

John on the trail(road) out. The first Sunday in June the descendants of the families come back and have a reunion at the church and clean up the grave yards. They had equipment in improving the road and mowing and brought outhouses in for the reunion this weekend.

May 30 2012 Cataloochee,NC

The next day dawned clear.

The view from the look out. You are supposed to see what is left of the town of Cataloochee, but the trees grew up in the way.

The Palmer Place. It has been restored and has an interpretive center inside about the town.  The Palmer barn.All the fields were cleared and they farmed-but the trees have grown back in most of the fields. The forest service keeps some of them open still.

Fireplace in the Palmer house.  Waterfall on the road.

We had to hike to the Wood house. The trail was down the old road along the creek. John crossing the creek. The Wood house. All of the restored structures were open so you could see the insides.

The spring house or refridgerator, the creek runs under it.

 

 

SueP in the Caldwell barn and the Palmer barn

Tree on the trail, John photographing his feet for the Chaco album

Creek Crossing, spider on our picnic table at camp

John preparing a sumptuous dinner

Bull elk at twilight with collar and ear tags , cow elk in front of the Palmer  Chapel

witches butter, false dandelions, blue eyed grass, clover, another lichen, asters, butter cup, daisies

geranium, orange butterflies, spice bush swallowtails, red spotted purple, Eastern tiger swallowtail and more red spotted purples

bull elk, lizard, millipede

May 28-29, 2012 Cataloochee, Great Smokey mountains, North Carolina

We had no cell or internet service in the Smokey’s so the next bunch of posts are posted  after we got out to the park. We drove from Murphy to Waynesville, NC where we got groceries and propane.  The propane place wrote on the receipt that the propane was sold to a motor homo. . .  A big storm was rolling in.

Waynesville, NC. with the Great Smokey Mountains behind. The Great Smokey’s out the window driving.

The last part of the road said it was a narrow dirt road. Well it was barely wider than the bus, then we came to a sign that said narrow road and blind corners.  . . I was never so scared in my life peering over those sheer drop offs out the side window and wondering if we were even going to make it around the tight turns and I was not even driving. John did a great job and fortunately we did not meet any one. There was  not room to pull over or back up or turn around so we had to just keep going.

Here is  a portion of the relief map in the visitors center with the road on it. Between the arrows is the narrow, blind cornered dirt road.

Our campsite-the tightest  one in the campground.  We were both stressed to the max from getting in here. I went biking. John was just getting ready to sit in his lawn chair with a beer to relax and the host came by and wanted the reservation numbers for the site. They were on John’s computer and there was no cell or computer reception down here. She made him drive back out to where he got reception and get the numbers or move the bus back out.  He called her the nazi.  I found the town of Catalooche  out on my bike ride. It was a thriving town of 1,200 in 1930 when it was declared part of the park. It had been since the early 1800’s. All the people had to move out. Some of the historic  structures were saved and restored.

Mountain laurel tree, Caldwell house.

Caldwell barn outside and inside looking out.

One of the early homesteading families were the Palmers.  I don’t think I am related to them. They  built the chapel.

50 elk were reintroduced to the park in 2001 and 2002, there are now 140.

wild turkey

Cataloochee is a beautiful camp ground, very isolated, quiet and dark at night. Of course there were no other motor homes, no one else was crazy enough to bring theirs up that road. There were no hook ups, which is fine with us, we are self contained , the stove, water heater and refrigerator are propane and we have a generator. All there is to do is relax, hike , ride horses, sight see or fish. There are lots of fishermen and horses here.