The Joy of Missing Out

I had a perfect plan and a park ranger told me I was wrong.

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I’m a planner. On our vancations, I’m the one who designs an hourly agenda, driven by FOMO, of missing something I want to photograph. We both can struggle to “just be” and go with the flow. For this day, I thought had a great plan: do an early hike to Charlie’s Bunion (an extremely popular mountain trail), drive along Highway 441, find some North Carolina BBQ, then drive back to Kuwohi Observation Tower to capture the fall leaves during golden hour.

However, the previous afternoon, we visited a visitor center to talk to a ranger about our hike the next morning. He told us that while Charlie’s Bunion was a nice hike, he recommended a similar hike nearby called The Jump Off. He also recommended visiting the observation tower at sunrise, as it would be less crowded. He also thought that sunrise was prettier than sunset.

I was hesitant to change everything. Adam tried to convince me. But as we drove past the packed parking lot for Charlie’s Bunion the next morning, I realized my plan was actually a recipe for a crowded, frustrating day. The ranger clearly knew something we didn’t.

We weren’t going to make the observation tower by sunrise anyway, so we parked the van. But I’ll be honest: my heart wasn’t in these photographs. I was surrounded by people (so many people all taking the same three cell phone shots), the color was just okay, and I was feeling annoyed. There was a bit of FOMO creeping up at the moment.

Since our plans were already scrambled, I figured we might as well hike the Jump Off (there were a lot of “FINE”s that morning). I may have mumbled and grumbled at the start, worried that we were gaining 1,500 feet of elevation for a lesser view. At least all of my recent hiking paid off since we were moving and grooving up the trail.

The trail felt similar to Colorado, except the trees were different, there was moss everywhere, and we found frost! So… not Colorado, LOL.

When we got to the end of the trail (with the view), the only other people there were a father and daughter. We all said hello, then I grabbed my camera to take pictures. Why else do I hike?

The father briefly struck up a conversation, wanting to know if we had ever been to this overlook before. We said it was our first time in the park, and that we had initially wanted to hike Charlie’s Bunion.

“We’ve hiked that before,” he said. “This is a much better view.” He pointed to our right and said, “That’s Charlie’s Bunion over there.”

If you zoom in, you’ll see a few people waiting to get their picture taken. The dad told us that when you get to the Bunion, everyone stands in line, waiting for their picture “at the end of the world,” then turns around and hikes back to the parking lot. The Bunion would have added another 1.5-2 miles to our current hike for an "Instagram shot." I laughed, realizing the ranger steered us in the right direction. We enjoyed our trail snacks with the view and without the nonsense.

As we hiked back to the car, we were passed by a group of college students from Notre Dame who had passed us earlier that morning. I distinctly remember one woman telling the others she was over this hike and just wanted to be done. I, instead, enjoyed the hike back with a bit a relief. I thought about how “done” Adam and I were after hiking Blue Lakes last year. Sometimes the trail back down can feel relentless, disappointing after reaching the end. But because we didn’t hike to the Bunion, neither of us felt that way.

The lone bit of fall hanging on. This trail was at 5,000 feet of elevation, whereas the rest of the park is around 1800 feet. While researching before the trip, I read that we would likely see peak color in the lower parts of the park, but not on this trail.

Only 1972 miles to go!

Did we make it to the observation tower after the hike? We drove to the area, got stuck in a 20 minute traffic jam, and heard someone say that all the cars in line were waiting for others to leave. We did not want that experience to be how we ended our time in the park, so we turned around and left. We’ll just have to save the observation tower for our next visit to the Smokies. And when we do, I’ll be sure to talk to a park ranger first.

Cheers.