Smoky Mountains Trip

Time to go back to school, so we had to take one more vacation, to the mountains. First stop was in Maggie Valley where three years ago I began a tradition of shooting the kids at Smoky Falls. I will post a series of those shots later.

We decided to stay at a campground, in a cabin, so that the kids could ride their bikes, swim, play in the creek, and meet other kids. We found a quaint campground in Bryson City that wasn't everything we hoped for but it was nice enough.

Steve and the boys are whittling at the campground. This is one of Nolan's favorite pastimes.

Cody being Cody.

We decided to spend all day Thursday hiking around the Great Smoky National Park. First stop to be Clingmans Dome. Logan has asked for weeks what it is like to be in the clouds. She was able to learn first hand at Clingmans Dome. From the main road, Clingmans Dome is 7 miles up. It is the highest peak in the Smokies at 6700 ft. As we drove up the clouds above grew darker and more dense, before you knew it we were in the clouds and it began to rain. We parked at Clingmans Dome and got of our car to a chilling 60 degrees!!!!! Logan decided that she did not like to be in the clouds, it was not fun.

This is the magnificent view from Clingmans Dome, you should be able to for miles, we were lucky to see 5 feet in front of us!

After the trip to Clingmans Dome we decided to hike a Quiet Walkway. The gnats were SO bad that after 5 mins we RAN to the car to escape them. So far our GSNP day is not looking good!

Next we went to the Kids Day at the GSNP and Cody was able to participate in the Junior Blacksmith class. He LOVED this. He was able to keep the "Ring-A-Ding-A-Ling" that he made.

We found this really cool tree in the Great Smoky National Park. I took all three kids photos with it.

Now it is time to head back to the cabin, Steve told us to keep our eyes peeled for Elk. As soon as he said that we came around a turn and there were cars everywhere. We jumped out of our car, grabbed the camera, and began shooting. As many times as we have visited the park this is the first time we have seen an Elk!

After our busy day we headed to Bryson City to cure a sweet tooth with some old fashioned ice cream.

Steve took us to Dillsboro and everything was closed, so we went by the Dillsboro Inn and showed the kids the Damn.

This is Logan and Nolan in the loft of the tiny cabin.

Back in Cherokee, NC we visited a creek to collect rocks. We visited this same spot on our very first trip three years ago.

Logan was excited to find a "L" shaped rock!

On our last day and we decided to try TUBING. My vision of tubing was drifting slowly down a river, relaxing.........
The Deep Creek was not slow, not relaxing.... it was fast (Class I & II in places) and it was an adrenaline rush, especially when I dropped Steve's car key in the river! OOPS! Panic set in but I guess Mother Nature was on our side because the key sank and was beside my foot. My lucky day! We tubed for 3-4 hours. The kids want to do it everyday next year on our return visit, and so does Mom! It was the square root of awesomeness !!!!