Cataloochee, NC - Great Smoky Mountains Elk Reserve

I'm a little late posting this but the family took a little road trip after church this past Sunday back in the mountains around Cosby. To be honest, our goal was to get lost and find our way back home... well, the good news is that we succeeded. We wound back over the mountains, through the woods, on gravel roads and so on through Cosby, TN, Mount Sterling, NC and other locations until we finally came out at Cataloochee, NC in the GSM State Park. The trip was really cool as we had no idea we were heading for the Elk Reserve. When we got there we were surprised to see a herd of elk only 20-30 yards from our car. These guys were monsters... all in all we saw probably 50. There were people sitting in lawn chairs beside the road eating lunch/dinner and just watching the elk graze. It was pretty cool. There were a couple of volunteers (not UT) that were driving around in an electric miniature Hummer of sorts showing different elk items and telling about them and their new home in the park. Stuff like... They were first released in GSM in 2001, One antler ways around 20lbs. and all kinds of other info. There was an old church built in the early 1900's. An old old homesite right on the creek. All were really neat. Below is a link to the pics of our day. Check them out. If you ever get a chance you should take the trip. Once we found our way back to the interstate, we realized it was just about an hour or hour and half trip if we had went straight there from Seymour. Thank the Lord for the great day!

https://s192.photobucket.com/albums/z136/G3_Guy/xMisc/Cataloochee NC Oct 05 2008

WOW! Looks awesome! I would love to make it there one day. How far is it from Dale Hollow? :LOL2:

looks nice =D>

Jim said:

How far is it from Dale Hollow? :LOL2:

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Just about 4 hours...

Jim,

Dale Hollow is a couple hours from the I-75 interstate (county roads through Onieda to LaFollette), then 45 minutes to Knoxville, then abpout 1-1/2 hours to the Smokies. All total , maybe four hours, give or take. Maybe G_3, Bubba, or for sure, BassNBob (who lives in Onieda) can give you a more accurate time line. I'm only familiar because my wife was raised in Jellico and I've been going down there for 30 years visiting in-laws, etc. Havent been to the Smokies in about 6-8 years, and that's why we're making a vacation out of the fishing trip to Dale Hollow, plus, Legbkr and hubby have never been to the smokies either, so we're making a good vacation attached to the fishing trip - with a couple of days fishing Norris Lake (there's some members here that fish Norris too).

It's a great day or two in the Smokies, (Cades Cove is a must) and, if you're bringing kids - there's always Dollywood :?: :roll: :lol:

Here's a map - Dlae Hollow is up in the upper left, Smokies (Gatlinburg area) lower right)

https://maps.google.com/maps?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4TSHB_enUS285US285&q=gatlinburg,+tn&um=1&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=title

Looking at the post, the map didn't come in as I looked at it - you'll have to zoom out and move it around to find both the Smokies AND Dale Hollow.

Also, Looks like heading south From Dale Hollow to I-40, then east to Knoxville would be faster than the directions I gave?? Again, the locals will offer better directions/Information.

sure is pretty up there aint it. yuns were rite up my alley. my old lady's dad was a ranger there when they introduced the elk, seems like there doing great

Loggerhead Mike said:

sure is pretty up there aint it. yuns were rite up my alley. my old lady's dad was a ranger there when they introduced the elk, seems like there doing great

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Yep, it's a great place! The elk appear to be doing great!