Sandy at Smoky Mountain Tower

We have had two sets of guest at Smoky Mountain Tower this week - at the same time!

Our "real" guests arrived from Pennsylvania on Saturday and are enjoying a whole week in Gatlinburg.  But an uninvited guest arrived late yesterday afternoon - Hurricane Sandy!

We subscribe to a service that provides us weather and other important alerts for the Gatlinburg area - just so we can warn our guests whenever necessary.  We started getting reports of the potential of high winds and even snow in the mountains above Gatlinburg.  We actually notified our "real" guests late Sunday afternoon to be on the alert for deteriorating weather conditions.  But I just talked with them a few minutes ago and they're doing fine.  They had some snow early this morning but it has melted.  The wind has died down and there have been no power outages.

The forecasts were primarily for snow at elevations above 2,500 feet.  All Decked Out is at 1,926 feet and Smoky Mountain Tower is at 2,193 feet.  This time, the forecasters were right.  Our reports are telling us that Newfound Gap (elevation 5,049 feet) in the National Park has more than 7 inches of snow (and the road through the Park is closed).  The lodge at Mt. LeConte - at 6,400 feet - has 17 inches, with drifts over 4 feet!  You can keep up with the happenings there through the caretaker's blog at http://www.highonleconte.com/daily-posts.html.

The only ski resort in the Smokies - Ober Gatlinburg (at 2,700 feet) - apparently hasn't opened yet.  But news reports say they have about 3 inches of snow.  And just last month, Ober Gatlinburg announced the installation of two new snowmaking machines that will enable them to make snow even when the weather is "warm."  You can check out all the activities for Ober Gatlinburg at www.obergatlinburg.com.  There's a lot more than skiing at Ober Gatlinburg.  And when you stay at Smoky Mountain Tower or All Decked Out, we provide you with special money-savings offers at Ober Gatlinburg and may other local establishments.

So, while we didn't invite Sandy, we DO invite you to enjoy one of the best times of year in the Smokies - the winter.   We still have some great dates open for the rest of the year and into 2013.  And we promise that Sandy won't be there!