Oconaluftee Visitor Center and Mountain Farm Museum

Just past the Mingus Mill you can pull into the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, the one Smoky Mountain visitor center in North Carolina.  As we're usually staying on the Tennessee side we don't always get to go by, but whenever we do we enjoy our time there.

The Mountain Farm Museum is a unique collection of farm buildings assembled from locations throughout the park. Visitors can explore a log farmhouse, barn, apple house, springhouse, and a working blacksmith shop to get a sense of how families may have lived 100 years ago. Most of the structures were built in the late 19th century and were moved here in the 1950s. The Davis House offers a rare chance to view a log house built from chestnut wood before the chestnut blight decimated the American Chestnut in our forests during the 1930s and early 1940s. The museum is adjacent to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center.
--from Great Smoky Mountains NP website

The visitor center does a great job of explaining the history of the area, starting with American Indians but also including the first non-Cherokee settlers that arrived in the 1790s.

You also learn something about how the farms would have been laid out.

In addition you can learn a bit about the park's history.

In a way though the best exhibits though are outside in the Farm Museum for these are actual buildings gathered from all over the park to tell the history of the area.

No pets are permitted in the area but thankfully kids are welcomed.

We first entered an area of heirloom apple trees protected by modern elk-proof fencing.

Apples were a staple for many mountain families and would often have been stored in a building like this apple house to protect them from the elements.

This is a sorghum mill used to press out the cane and extract sorghum.

You can see how it worked via this picture that I took at Dollywood a couple days before where a modern mill was being run as a demonstration.

This is a furnace that was used for refining the sorghum.

This was one of the houses that you could enter.

The meathouse would protect a valuable source of protein that was usually salted or smoked to allow it to last without refrigeration.

Here is an interior view of the meathouse.

If you're in the area and the weather is decent you really should stop by the Mountain Farm Museum and stroll around.  Admission is of course free since there is no entrance free for Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

This video tour (that I found via the park service page) will give you more of a preview before you come.

You can also see more of my photos in my Oconoluftee Visitor Center and Mountain Farm Museum albums.

~Matt

Mingus Mill

After we left the Laurel Falls trailhead we headed towards the North Carolina side of the park.  While we made a brief stop at Newfound Gap to take in the view from higher elevations we were going on further.  Our next stop was Mingus Mill, which is right off the main road.  Amy and I had been there before but we had never taken the kids with us there.

A half-mile north of the Oconaluftee Visitor Center is Mingus Mill. Built in 1886, this historic grist mill uses a water-powered turbine instead of a water wheel to power all of the machinery in the building. Located at its original site, Mingus Mill stands as a tribute to the test of time.
--from Great Smoky Mountains NP website

The mill dates from 1896 and was rehabilitated by the Park Service over fifty years ago.  Once you leave the parking lot you cross over a bridge and walk up a path towards the mill.

It is a two-story structure and looks so much better than all of the buildings in the park that aren't actively maintained.

Inside in addition to the working machinery is an information table/sales counter.

If you continue upstairs you can view more about the history of the building.

This is a bolting chest.  "After the wheat was ground into flower a conveyor, or bucket, belt transported it to the bolting chest located on the second floor of the mill.  This machine, which was also powered by the turbine, sifted the flour and separated it into several grades from fine flour to bran (bits of hull)."
--from exhibit signage

This wheat cleaner looks somewhat like a Trojan horse to me.

Out back of the mill is the watercourse that brought the water to power the machinery.

Of course it started out on ground level.

Then as it got closer to the mill they needed to build supports to keep the flow going at the same level.

Finally it powered the waterwheel on the side of the building.

The mill is well worth a stop when you're on the North Carolina side of the park.  You might even catch a glimpse of a beautiful stream as you walk around.

If you want to see a few more photos of the area you can find them here.

~Matt

Laurel Falls

The day after we hiked up the Meigs trail to Meigs Creek Cascade we took another waterfall hike to Laurel Falls.

Laurel Branch and the 80-foot high Laurel Falls are named for mountain laurel, an evergreen shrub which blooms along the trail and near the falls in May. The waterfall consists of an upper and a lower section, divided by a walkway which crosses the stream at the base of the upper falls. Laurel Falls is one of the most popular destinations in the park and parking at the trailhead is limited. The area is especially busy on weekends year-round and on weekdays during summer.
--from Great Smoky Mountains NP website

Just like with Meigs Creek Cascade we picked this trail because it was uphill and not too long--we didn't want to push our luck with the kids.

I picked up one of the trail guides as we started up the path since it promised to explain more about the route as we hiked.  We joked that we were safe from bears since our youngest loved to periodically squeal and we called him our bear alarm.

Many of the bushes along the trail are mountain laurel.  "Blooming in the early summer, it turns large patches of woods and hillsides to pink or white....  A stand of [laurel or rhododendron] is called a 'laurel hell,' because that's what it is if you are trying to get through it."
--from trail brochure

The trail is actually paved, but does slope uphill quite a bit at the start.

I spotted some more amazing mushrooms very similar to some of the fungi that I'd photographed the day before.

The path twists and turns around stones and trees.

This view of roots, rocks, and plants all jumbled together was fascinating to see.

We walked past a small rivulet of water.

More fungi were spotted running along a log.

As we got higher up the nature of the soil changed into more of a sandy texture.

I also spotted some beautiful flowers.

And there were even more fungi.

This bench was popular with the kids as a resting spot.

A glimpse through the trees led to a beautiful view.

I'm always interested to see what kids will find fascinating, like this leaf.

I find the labels on this trail counter amusing--some people must have thought it was a camera and might have blocked or damaged it.

These reddish leaves made for a beautiful dash of color.

A few paces on was another gorgeous view across the hills.

We spotted some yellow flowers beside the trail.

Then there were some white ones.

It is crazy how often people have to be told to stay away from drop-offs.

By this point we were almost to the falls and could hear the sound of the water falling.

Laurel Branch tumbles down from Cove Mountain and eventually becomes part of Little River.  It is representative of the hundreds of miles of Smokies streams, whose purity is unexcelled by streams anywhere else in the United States.  Their beauty appears in many forms, slow trickles and gurgling branches to torrents and cascades.  The abundance of surface water comes from the heavy annual rainfall of about 55 inches per year.  The rocks near the falls are covered with wet, slick algae, and safe footing is impossible to find.
--from trail brochure

The paved trail transitioned into a bridge.

Then it connected to the stone right below the falls.

Water came up to right next to the bridge.

We enjoyed resting before the falls for a while.

And of course I had to take a long exposure photo.

There is another waterfall directly past the path as the water continues on down the hill.

I don't do many selfies, but I'll occasionally ask my wife to take my picture somwhere.

There were more flowers surrounding the falls.

At last we headed back down.

It was over a mile back to our car, but it was consistently downhill.

To view some more photos from our hike check out this album.

~Matt