Great Smokey Mountain National Park

So this one will be fun to write because unlike my normal trips – I had a companion! My youngest sister Abby came with me on this trip, and I had the honor of taking her camping for the first time. Aside from me forgetting her sleeping bag I think it was a success! She had a volleyball tournament in Sevierville TN over the weekend so we set out early Monday morning for this beautiful park! Here we are by the sign 🙂

We stopped by the visitor center so I could add another magnet to my collection. Our original plan was to hike Grotto Falls. Unfortunately there was NO parking! It filled up fast. But we made up our own waterfall hike, led by Solomon (Abby’s named wild turkey).  Here are some pictures from our stop.

After exploring around the water, we drove up the mountain to check out Clingman’s Dome. Got our first good view of the Smokey Mountain range

We also go to see our first black bear! For those of you who have read my other blogs you may have noticed that I have NO pictures of bears. That’s because I’ve never seen one in the wild! Obviously this one won’t be framed…but it was still exciting!

After we checked out the viewing platform we decided to head over to Cades Cove. With all the construction it took quite a while. Driving past one crowded area I saw bear #2! I pulled off on the side (accidentally waking up Abby.. :)) and jumped out to see if I could get a better picture. Unfortunately, its about as good as the first but still exciting!

Once we got to Cades Cove we realized it was definitely worth the drive! The sweeping green grass with the mountains in the background. Snapped a few pictures, but they really do not do it justice.

Then as we were coming up we saw a few people stopped and looked over into the field and saw a whole family of bears grazing! It took our bear count up to 6!

We decided to take a “shortcut” to get off the loop. It was a VERY rough road that went over the mountains and came back out on the other side. I put Pete in off-road mode for the first time with cause. This was Abby’s favorite part haha.

Loved this park – Can’t wait to come back again and do a bit more hiking. Definitely earlier in the spring or later in fall when it isn’t so hot! And it was park #33 for me!