Welcome to another voyage through time (no TARDIS required), also known as ThrowBack Thursday (TBT). This time, TBT brings us to October 2015, to witness a return to the mountains around Cherokee, North Carolina. We’ll begin at Bryson City, a small town which serves as the starting point for the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad (GSMR). That’s right…another train ride. What can I say? Me like Choo-Choo. But when I go ridin’ a train, I focus on enjoying the experience, rather than photographing it. Thus, I only took pictures when the train was stopped, and thusly thus the pics I have from GSMR don’t include the scenery along the route. But in this case, you’re not missing anything. For most of this route, the train is surrounded by fairly dense forest. While a relaxing ride through a forest can be enjoyable, it’s not particularly photogenic. While GSMR has a steam locomotive that sees occasional use, I only saw diesels when I was there – and not the cool streamlined diesels of old. So, unless you’re a serious rail fan just lookin’ to chill in the woods, GSMR may not be for you. But have a look at the few pics I took:

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After the train ride, I wandered back through Cherokee and into Great Smoky Mountains National Park. My first stop in the park was Mingus Mill, a historic (built in 1886) wheat- and corn-grinding mill that served the locals for 50 years. It was rehabilitated (does that mean it was addicted to smack?) by the National Park Service in 1968 and has operated during the summer ever since. Check it out:

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Continuing upward in elevation, I soon noticed that autumn had definitely arrived here. I took the next group o’ photos along the drive up to the Clingmans Dome overlook:

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As a Westerner, a name like Clingmans Dome sounds to me like a mountain with a large “bald” area on top – one where you have long-distance views in all directions when you are standing on top of the mountain. But not here. Even a mountain that has the word “Dome” in its name is forested on top. O, what is a poor, simple National Park Service to do? Why, to build an observation tower above the trees, of course! These next photos were taken from the Clingmans Dome observation tower (with the obvious exception of the picture *of* the tower):

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The following day was devoted to driving more of the Blue Ridge Parkway. As you will see below, autumn was definitely in full swing along the parkway:

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Whelp, that’s it! You may return to the present. And for quite some time. Y’see, for the next three Thursdays I’ll be reporting from the present on a big trip I’ll be taking around the state of Nebraska! That is, unless another blizzard shows up in the forecast.