The Great Smoky Mountains

At the end of August we took a trip to Smoky Mountains National Park with Jason and Marcie.

Marcie found us a cabin that was big enough for both our families to stay in comfortably.

Our kids could hardly wait to get there and play with their cousins!

I'm glad that still whenever we get together, it's like we were never away.

We only had about 4 days, so we crammed them full of lots of activities.

Of course.

Laurel Falls Hike:

The first day we were there was Sunday, so we decided to go into the park and find a nice, easy trail that little kids and pregnant ladies alike could navigate.

We found a trail leading about a mile and a half up to a waterfall, and figured that we could all handle it.

As always, there was a little griping coming from the kids, but I think they all had fun.

The weather was wonderful!

We really lucked out with moderate temperatures and low humidity while we were there.

Here we are, starting out.  Even Mason 'hiked'.  We had her wear tennis shoes, but since she never wears them, I don't think she liked them much; they were a little too heavy on her feet.  So she alternated between wanting to be carried, and wanting to walk with the kids.

We really had quite a crew!  And the trails were pretty full that day.  We kind of played Leap-frog with a bunch of other big groups as we made our way to the waterfall.

Cayden, of course, found some rocks to climb on. 

And inspired all the other kids to get up there with him.

The waterfall was small, but pretty.

The kids wanted to climb on all the rocks they could find.  A lot of them were pretty slippery, so they had to be really careful.  Brooklyn and Lillian had one minor tumble together, but thankfully Marcie was prepared with wipes and bandaids.

 Running right next to the trail we were on was a very steep ravine.  There were signs all along the path cautioning parents not to let their kids run ahead, so they wouldn't fall down.

Andy and Jason, instead, decided to help the big kids (Cayden, Ashton, Regan and Olivia) climb down it at the waterfall to do some exploring.

There's Cayden, way up on the right, perched on a rock.

 There was only so much playing the little kids could do while we waited for the others, so Marcie and I headed back to the cars with the little kids.

On the way back down we actually saw a bear!  The Smoky Mountains are full of small black bears.  Marcie and I just saw brush and things moving around above us, but didn't actually see the bear when the people we ran into told us it was there, but when Jason and Andy came down after us, they actually saw it and got pictures!  The kids thought this was wonderful!

I thought it was kind of funny that some people were turning around on the trail because they heard there was a bear!  The park rangers said that bears were pretty used to seeing people, and if you left them alone and didn't draw too much attention to yourself, there was no danger.

Also, later that day we saw a mom and baby bear.  We were driving back down the mountains when we saw people pulled over on the side of the road, with a bear on the side.  Jason and I hopped out of our cars to get a picture, but a ranger showed up and told everyone to get back in their car.  When I went back around to my side of the car, there was a baby bear climbing up a tree right in front of me!  At first I didn't know there were two bears; we thought the bear had just gone under the bridge we were on, to the other side.  As we started pulling away, the mom ran right into the road to get to where her baby was!  We didn't get any pictures, but it was fun to see.  The kids had som much fun watching those bears, right outside our car.

Highest Point in the Smokies:

After our hike we drove up to the highest point of the Park.

It was kind of a twisty, turny road, but very pretty.

At the top was a large parking area, and a point where you could hike up to a look-out tower.

Mason was asleep, and the other kids weren't interested in another mile hike, so we just let them run around as we looked out over the mountains.

This is why they're called the Great Smoky Mountains.

Gatlinburg Ski Resort:

Monday we decided to take the tram up the mountain to see the ski resort and go down the alpine slides.  When we got up there we saw that there was all sorts of things to do.

Views from the tram:

 Some of the kids were too small for the alpine slide, so there were plenty of rides to ride. 

 The big kids had fun on them also.

Going to the North Carolina Side:

More 'Smokey' mountains.

(We thought it was funny how 'smokey' in the Great Smoky Mountains is misspelled!)

I had no idea that we were that close to North Carolina, and that the park was in both Tennessee and North Carolina.

Andy and I had to go home on Tuesday, so we decided to head to the other side of the park and go home through North Carolina.  Right outside the other entrance to the park was a big Cherokee Reservation.  We headed there, and to another small hike to a waterfall.

This one really was a small hike - maybe 1/2 a mile to get to the waterfall, which all the kids did easily.  The 'trail' ended at a bridge where you could view the waterfall.



The view was very pretty, and I could just imagine what it would like like earlier in the year when there was more water coming down!

Andy and Jason again decided to take the big kids off to forge their own trail up to the top of the fall, while Marcie and I waited at the bridge with the little kids.

There's Andy, waving from about half-way up.  In all, they were probably gone about an hour and half, hiking up to the very top.  The big kids were all pretty excited and impressed to go up, while the little kids (and moms) got a little bored waiting for them to return...

After they returned, and we had lunch, we went to visit on old farm museum before heading home.

There was an old farmhouse, barn, pigpen, apple cellar, well and many other things, showing how people lived and farmed 150 years ago.

And a nice, scenic spot by the river to take some pictures,

and for the kids to play and climb on fallen logs, and in trees.

At this point, Ashton took over the camera.  It's always interesting to see what we get in her photography!

 

And now it was time for us to make the long trek home.

I'm so glad we got to take this trip with Marcie and Jason.

We had been talking for almost a year about taking another trip with them (we went to Disney World together April '09) when Jason got home from Afghanistan, but sometimes it's really hard to coordinate schedules.  We'll have lots of good memories from this trip, and hope that we can do more soon!