A Cemetery and Fall Colors

Today was a bit overcast and cooler than it has been here in the Smokies for the last couple of days. The forecast was for rain, which never came; but we didn't plan any hikes, just in case.

We visited Carter's Apple House, a restaurant and store in Cosby. Then went to the Cosby picnic area to eat the lunch that we had purchased at Subway this morning. From there, we went to the Greenbrier area of the national park.

A few years ago, a local guy had told us about a cemetery that was located just off a hiking trail in Greenbrier, so we decided to hike up that trail a little way and locate that cemetery.

Unnamed Cemetery Off the Grapeyard Ridge Trail in Greenbrier

Cemeteries in the Smokies can be very interesting. Often, the names and dates of birth and death are crudely scratched into a flat stone. Many times, graves are marked with nothing more than a plain stone, with no engraving at all. Surprisingly, many of the graves in these cemeteries are still tended by family members, even though some are nearly a hundred years old and in very remote locations. And it's not uncommon to find that the family has placed a new marker on the grave of a loved one, sometimes with the original marker still in place.

The "Borned" and "Dyed" misspellings are fairly common on these grave markers.

The backwards "N" is also a fairly common sight.

Notice that the date of death on this one consists of ditto marks under the date of birth.

After visiting the little cemetery, we went to the picnic pavilion at Greenbrier, built a fire in the fireplace there, and read books for a couple of hours.

Here are a couple of photos of trees that still have their fall foliage. Their colors are so brilliant, it's as if they're trying to make up for those that are already leafless.

This one was in the Cosby picnic area.

This was taken near the Greenbrier picnic pavilion.

By the time our firewood had burned down, it was time to go get some supper and head back to our hotel for the night.