When we visit the Smoky Mountains, we spend a LOT of time in Cade’s Cove. There was a time when the Cove was home to a community of around seven hundred people, whose lives were anything but easy.  Now, it is quiet…and if you try, you can almost see gostlike images of those residents going about their routines.

Tuesday evening we drove there….just to hang out…to soak in the atmosphere that is uniquely Cades Cove.  As you scroll through the images perhaps you can get of sense of why we keep returning to this idyllic place.

When I am there, I think of these words written by Tony Hillerman:

“Memorize places. Settle your eyes on a place and learn it. Feel it and smell it, walk on it and touch the stones, and it will be with you forever. When you are far away, you can call it back. When you need it, it is there in your mind.”