Spectacular Smoky Mountain Sunset

The sunset we witnessed tonight at Clingman’s Dome was the most gorgeous sunset we have ever seen – this includes sunsets in Hawaii, Orange Beach and the Grand Canyon.  It was amazing!

We got to the top about 1 hour before sunset, and it was a bit chilly, but not too bad.

Then, suddenly, the clouds rolled in. It was so cold in the cloud!  We didn’t want to miss the sunset, so we stood there shivering and talking to some of the other people who were up there.  It was pretty crowded!

A woman came up behind us and took a picture of us looking at the sunset just like this (with HER camera!).  She then told us that she would take one with our camera if we wanted.  Of course we did! 

And then it started getting really pretty!  The clouds cleared enough for us to see a cloud-covered mountain. It was beautiful!

And then, finally, the clouds started clearing from the other mountain and we could see the trees.  It was amazing.  We couldn’t look away.  I bet we took over 200 photos in less than 15 minutes.  We were completely awed.

After the spectacular sunset, we headed back down to the car.  The mountains were absolutely beautiful at dusk.

We finally made it to the car (right at about 5 miles hiking in total), blasted the heat, and drove back to Gatlinburg.  We were both craving pizza and also hoping to make it back to the hotel in time to watch the TN game, which started at 9 pm.  Unfortunately we got stuck in traffic, so we called ahead to The Best Italian Restaurant (the actual name) on the Parkway and ordered a large pepperoni pizza & some garlic knots to pick up and take back to the hotel with us.  It was some of the best pizza I have EVER had in my entire life.  Maybe it was the hunger, but my goodness it was fantastic.  After we picked up the pizza, we sat in traffic for at least another 30 minutes to get back to the hotel (bummer!) and ended up eating all of the garlic knots and some of the pizza in the car….we were STARVING!

Finally we made it back to the hotel, finished the pizza, and watched the disappointing ballgame.  I was asleep before it was over!

Hiking the Smokies: Andrew’s Bald & Clingman’s Dome

We planned to return to Clingman’s Dome for sunset since our last sunset viewing there was so spectacular.  We also wanted to hike to Andrew’s Bald, a short 1.7 miles from the parking lot.

Clingman’s Dome was so crowded that we had to park on the road down from the parking lot and hike in.  Once we got there, we took the trail (downhill most of the way) 1.7 miles to Andrew’s Bald.  It was so serene & peaceful here!  The view was somewhat obstructed by the tree line, but it was still gorgeous.  We rested a bit before heading back.

(Who wears short shorts?)

From Andrew’s Bald, we hiked 2.5 miles up to the top of Clingman’s Dome.

We reached the top of Clingman’s Dome at about 6 pm, 1 hour before sunset.  We quickly realized that we were in the clouds again.  It was VERY COLD!!!