Lake Ocoee Reservoir from an overlook just a couple of miles from Parksville National Campground.

On our way to Chattanooga, we stopped off for a couple of days at Parksville National Campground, just off the Ocoee Scenic Byway next to the Ocoee River on the fringe of the Cherokee National Forest and Appalachian Mountains.

Towns in the area loved the word “Ocoee”. There were streets and businesses named Ocoee. We had to look up the pronunciation. O-koe’-ee (both “Os” are long, and the “C” is hard).

The Parksville Campground is a cute little facility nestled in a deep forested valley without any cell signal. We survived our week of boondocking in the Smokies, also without cell signal, mainly because we had so much sunshine and the trees over V-Jer had lost all of their leaves. That gave us just enough solar to run V-Jer. Here, we have electricity, and at a reasonable price - $20 for youngsters and $15 for us oldsters.

The sites were level, roomy, and private. The bathroom had flush toilets and showers.

After set-up, it was time to hike. A short drive up the gorgeous Ocoee Scenic Byway is a network of hiking trails that converge at a waterfalls. We love waterfalls, so off we went.

Benton Falls was one of those long tall skinny variety of falls. What’s nice about this type is that they can turn a trickle of water into an impressive spectacle. Benton Falls did just that.

Much of the colorama is now gone, but we still find a tree or two aglow with bright reds or golden yellows. By slowly going south, we have extended the colorful pageantry for a long time.

At the Benton Falls trailhead, there is a lake, beach, and the Chilihowee National Campground. The campground was closed, but the trail system was open..

Sizing up the perfect shot.

I think I got it.

And there it is. Maybe not perfect, but decent.

Between the 3 hour drive from the Smokies to Parksville, and the 4-mile hike to Benton Falls, the day got chewed up. Darkness comes early now. After the hike, we returned to V-Jer to settle in with our heater turned up to “balmy”.

Road back to our camp.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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