November 8, 2017

Good Afternoon,
     The skies have been doing a tug-of-war in recent days, with periods of rain broken up by patches of blue sky like the one we're enjoying currently.  The downpour lasted most of Tuesday morning, and then a brief shower passed through early this morning.  Another 1.8" of rainfall was received by the mountain yesterday, and it had all of the creeks swelling.  Crossings today should be much calmer, but expect plenty of wet places along the trails for the time being.  Temperatures were mild, as our high came in at 49 degrees followed by a low of 40.  Again, we've spent all of today in the 40's thus far.

More water than usual churning through Styx Branch yesterday.

     We're well into November now, and amazingly just two weeks remain in the season before we close up shop.  What fall color remains in the Smokies can be found in the park's lowest elevations.  As far as what to expect on Mt. LeConte, there's a lot more gray with openings in the trees, which will be the case for the next several months on these slopes.  Your eyes tend to catch different things in the woods once the leaves have gone away.  As was the case yesterday, the rain brought on numerous wet weather creeks and cascades that could be seen all around the valley of the West Prong.
     Now that we've made the time change, we're also bouncing one of our meal times to best allow overnight guests the opportunity to see sunset.  Now through the end of the season, supper will be served hot at 6:15 PM after sunset takes place.  With sunrise happening earlier, we are now back to serving guests breakfast at the standard time of 8:00 AM.  The llamas are also still on their Wednesday/Friday/Sunday schedule in case you're hoping to catch them in action one last time.  Just six more trips for our favorite fuzzy packers!
​     Have a great afternoon.

Gold surrounds the base of Bull Head, as seen from the Campbell Overlook. Photo courtesy of Bonnie Northrup.