Great Smoky Mountains National Park - The Sinks

Last week was the kid's Spring Break, and we decided to take them over to Tennessee for a visit to the Smoky Mountains. So we headed east through Memphis (unfortunately no time to stop for ribs), and then through Nashville and then eventually Gatlinburg.

We last visited Great Smoky Mountains National Park ten years ago, and I was excited to get back. The park is beautiful, with scenic overlooks and waterfalls and mountain streams. I was quite eager to get out and into the park, so I woke up before sunrise the next day (unsurprisingly, no one else wanted to wake up early and get back in the car for more driving). It was raining and foggy when I drove into the park.

They say it's always darkest before the dawn, which of course means there's no light for taking pictures. I followed the Little River Gorge Road, and stopped at one of the first pulloffs to wait for the sunrise. Finally there was just light enough to get a few pictures, so I set up the camera under an umbrella and tried to get a few pictures. I got this shot, which was taken with a 30 second exposure.



Then I headed further down the road to a spot called The Sinks - a 15 foot-tall waterfall along the Little River.



The Sinks isn't actually a natural waterfall. It was man-made, back before this was a National Park. Back in the 1800s there was a large logging industry here, and one of the ways that fallen trees were sent to the sawmill was to float them down the Little River. But one year a massive logjam occurred at a horseshoe bend in the river. Hundreds of logs piled up, and the loggers came up with a solution - dynamite. The resulting blast left a deep chasm, which removed the logs but also rerouted the river.



It was pouring rain when I was there, and I had the place to myself. The parking lot was empty and only a few cars passed over the bridge. We stopped here a few other times on our trip, and each time it would be nearly packed with people. There were even people swimming here, despite the numerous signs saying that swimming was prohibited (and also despite the water probably being really really cold). But this morning I headed back to the car, dried off the camera, and drove off to a few more scenic spots on the Little River. More photos from here on the next post...

Back In The USSR

Along Hwy. 65, deep in the Arkansas Delta, is the small community of Moscow.



Luckily there is no Putin here. Just a few houses and a large collection of farm equipment.



Dark storm clouds lingered above Moscow, and the nearby fields that all the farm equipment will soon be taking over.

Grady

Most people drive right past the small town of Grady as the hurry by on Hwy. 65. In fact a lot of people might remember Grady since it used to be a pretty notorious speed trap. I got caught there too, way back when I was in college heading down to New Orleans for Spring Break. 

Grady sits within the Arkansas Delta, and is surrounded by flat fields that are dotted with grain silos. I pulled off of Hwy. 65 and made a quick stop at this one, which was reflected in a large puddle. It was a stormy day and dark clouds were overhead.



Spring is almost here, and the barren fields will soon be growing soybean and rice and cotton.



The old high school in Grady was built in 1915, and was used until the school district was consolidated with Star City.



And just down the road is this old house:



And just outside of town was this abandoned farmhouse:



Also nearby is this old church, almost hidden amongst the trees and overgrown brush:



And a quick peek inside. It looks like the floor is about to fully collapse (I wasn't brave enough to step inside):



And one last shot, of another abandoned house that stood out thanks to its bright paint:

School's Out

In the flat and verdant lands of the Arkansas Delta sits an abandoned school. The rusty metal doors were probably once locked up tight, but they had been pushed open at some point. It's hard to tell how long it has been abandoned. There are still some library books on shelves and assorted toys scattered about. But also parts of the roof are gone, and chunks of ceiling tiles and insulation sit in soggy heaps on the ground.





It had stormed the day before, and rainwater had percolated throughout the building. The long hallway in the middle of school was interspersed with puddles, and the floors were still wet.



I'm not sure of the history of the building. It was once an elementary school, but it probably closed when the school district was consolidated. It then served as a daycare/learning center. In one room, there were some old teddy bears left behind.



In one room there were desks set up, as if a teacher would stroll in at anytime to start a lesson. But most of the chairs were filled with debris or water. Many of the desks had water damage, the fake wood peeling up like sunburned skin.



Like all abandoned and forgotten places, there was that sense of both sadness and foreboding. This building must have seen decades worth of kids passing through, running down the halls and trying to sit still during math lessons. Now the only movement was water dripping down through the gaps in the ceiling.





Although the students are long gone, there are a few reminders of them. Like this stuffed animal, sitting on a book shelf that's covered with fallen debris from the ceiling.



The screams and laughs of kids at recess are nothing but memories. Now the building is quiet, the only noise being the sounds of the occasional car driving down the nearby road. 

Under The Bridge

The newly rebuilt I-30 bridge, which cost 634 million dollars and took four years to complete, recently opened up. And along with it, large swaths of Riverfront Park which had previously been home to construction equipment. I had some free time so I headed to the park, and set up the camera under the bridge for a few pictures.



The bridge is nice, I guess. I mean it accomplishes the goal of getting cars across the river. But it's a bit boring, though. For all the money they spent on it, could it have hurt them to make it look nicer? When the Golden Gate Bridge was built, it cost $35 million (which was the equivalent of $610 million in today's money). But for the same amount this looks like the basic and cheapest bridge option from the first Sim City game.