Elkmont Campground

Day 237
​Elkmont TN

The move from Cosby to Elkmont didn't take long at all. It was only a matter of hitting the dump station and filling up with water before driving an hour to the main area of Smoky Mountain National Park. We arrived quite early and had to wait for almost an hour before the campground would check us in. By noon we had Penny parked and lunch out of the way. Not wanting to waste any of our time in this mystical place, we packed up and headed deep into the wilderness. Forty minutes of driving took us to the highest point in the park.

Clingman's dome is listed as the highest peak in all of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The parking lot sits at around 6,300 feet in elevation. From there it is a 1/2 mile walk up a nearly 13% grade to reach the look out point located at 6,644 feet. We saw a few park rangers standing around next to a fire truck and thought nothing of it. Time to head up the trail.

We get almost to the top and there is a crowd of people standing around. A park ranger tells us that they had a medical emergency and it would be another 30 minutes or so until the ambulance leaves. OK. Stuff happens and that sucks for the person who had a problem. We turn around and hike back to the Jeep to hang out and wait for the ambulance to come down. I've come to learn some things in life. Don't trust people for accurate information. Forty five minutes pass and the ambulance rolls past us. No lights, no drama. For the second time we climb the trail only to get turned around near the same spot again by some other folks. "They said it will be closed for at least two hours". That probably means someone died. Again, that sucks for the family who had it happen to them. But come on, nobody at the bottom told us before we went up. There are a half a dozen park rangers and a couple of firefighters literally standing at the trail head and nothing gets said. That is some piss poor management by the national park service. Guess we will go home and call it a day.