Cades Cove is a valley northwest of the national park.
This is the most visited area in a most visited national park. It is said that the
traffic here in high season is comparable to that of any metropolitan area.
Fortunately the November is not a popular season here and we did not find ourselves
caught in a string of cars that often. The loop road within Cades Cove is 11 miles long
one way traffic with two short-cut roads to escape. It usually will take 3 or 4 hours for the tour.
Cades Cove is famous for abundant wild life, natural beauty and the establishments of early settlers.
We did see some deers and the valley views here is very beautiful. However, it is far from
unique or special. To me the most interesting thing we did was probably wandering around and inside
the old houses and churches built by the settlers. More than a dozen of century-old buildings
can be found along the loop road. They were preserved in very good condition for visitors
to see and feel in order to imagine the life of early settlers in this place.
This whole area used to belong to Cherokee indians. As there were more settlers demanding more lands
in early 19 century, the indians were forced to abandom their homes and relocated to some other places.
Settlers began moving in and reached the population of more than 600 (and more than 100 households) on 1850.
The population began to decrease since then and the national park was established on 1934.
