I haven’t properly celebrated Memorial Day weekend in the States since 2017 so I was excited to enjoy some good ole American country fun (whilst still socially distancing)! It’s been raining nonstop for a week so we were excited to have a sunny, 90-degree day and explore more of the Blue Ridge & Smokey Mountains. We woke up early yesterday at 4:45am and headed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to catch the sunset and ended up going on a driving adventure to the Smokey Mountains with a few stops along the way.

SUNRISE EXPLORATIONS

Our original sunrise destination was Waterrock Knob, a popular viewing point that’s right on a ridge so you can easily see 360 views. The clouds were passing through at that hour though so we were caught in the most intense fog and could barely see the front of our car. We eventually found our way over to Werner Bald though, which ultimately became the perfect sunrise viewing spot. After sunrise, we drove around and stopped at quite a few overlooks with one of my favorites being Yellow Face as you could see the mountain tops covered over with clouds. What I find incredibly magical about the Blue Ridge Mountains is that since most of it is at such a high elevation, you’ll often see pools of clouds under you overall, a sight typically saved exclusively for window seat airplane passengers so it’s quite the visual treat!☁︎.

During the drive, we came across a family of elk which surprised all of us. They were moseying about along the highway walking through the fog clouds, seemingly foraging for breakfast. One of them was tagged up with hooks on his ears and a necklace tracker which was a bit sad but his friends didn’t seem to notice the difference thankfully. Overall, they were intrigued by us (or annoyed🤷🏻‍♀️) just as much as we were by them. It was my first time seeing an elk eat but I noticed they seem to bite down towards the bottom of the branch and slide up, easily removing all the leaves at once, and munching away with their newfound treasure before they moved onto the next branch.🌱

SMOKEY MOUNTAINS, HERE WE COME…

Since it was still quite early, we took advantage of the morning hours and made our way towards the Smokey Mountain hiking trails before the memorial day weekend crowds caught up to us. As our all day adventure was an impromptu one, we didn’t have any food/water so decided to make a quick stop in Cherokee, the only town seemingly between the two famous national parks, to pickup some provisions at a Food Lion we found on Google Maps.

Along the drive, we saw more elk dining away on their hard-earned morning breakfast.

BUT FIRST, CHEROKEE!

Cherokee is an interesting town in western North Carolina that is home to the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation and much of the town is still preserved and run with the Cherokee lifestyle in mind. We managed to find the Food Lion here and as we pulled into the parking lot, we interestingly noticed there was a huge sign out out front noting the grocery store was granting entry only to local residents with proper paperwork. It took me a second to comprehend what they meant as I’ve never been turned away from a grocery store before but alas, it’s 2020 COVID times so I guess there’s a first for everything. There were two employees manning the door to enforce this rule who were kind but not quite helpful as they recommended we essentially head back to our own town for groceries.🤦🏻‍♀️ We thankfully found a Family Dollar in the same shopping center and picked up some water, nuts, cereal, and got on our way.

SMOKEY MOUNTAIN RIVER ADVENTURES

With the mishap at Food Lion, we didn’t arrive at the Smokey Mountains hiking trails until later at which point there were hoards of people and license plates from all different states. The site was terrifying as seeing strangers freak me out now, especially a large amount of them, so we skipped the trails and kept driving. The route we took wound all along an enticing river and since we didn’t have any other plan, we parked in a random pull off and climbed down to the river. It turned out to be our own remote, little rapids respite. The water was so clear and refreshing on such a hot day that we ended up getting clever with our outfits and climbed in.🤷🏻‍♀️

All in all, Memorial Day Weekend 2020 has been a success filled with the perfect balance of rest & fun adventures, all whilst still social distancing.

PRO TIPS

If you want to see elk in the wild, wake up early and catch them during their breakfast hours!
Elk are actually the same animals as “Moose”! A fun fact we learned in New Hampshire. Apparently those from Northeast US call them “moose” however in the Southeast US and in Europe, they are called “elk”.
Always keep seasonally appropriate outdoor gear in your car! Bathing suit, sunscreen, and towels for the summer. Hiking boots, socks, and gloves for the winter. Headlamp for all seasons.
Download the maps offline on Google Maps as there is no real cell service all along the way (especially if you have T-Mobile).