Adventures in the Smokies

Saturday and Sunday were days of adventures in the park, Saturday a few more adventures than on Sunday.

Em and Laura during the ride

Laura pre-ride

Alex pre-ride

On Saturday we started by going horseback riding in the park.  It was about 1 hour long and took us around 4 miles up into the mountains and back.  The girls spotted a deer on the ride but Em and I didn't see it.  Even without spotting wildlife it was a beautiful ride through the hills and getting to see a new part of the park we wouldn't have otherwise seen.  The girls absolutely loved it and would have loved to ride everyday if we would let them.  Em and I both really enjoyed it as well, but after 1 hour on a horse our legs were done riding for the day.

The family at the end of the ride

Another old pull through barn

We climbed to a small falls

After horse back riding we went back to Roaring Fork to try and do the Grotto Falls hike we didn't have time to do on Tuesday.  However, the lot for that hike was packed so we couldn't do it.  We did see some of the sites on that loop that we hadn't seen before, including some buildings and a waterfall along the road, before heading off to our next adventure.

The new bear, Smoky

A small falls near visitor center

After that little adventure we stopped at the Sugarlands Visitor center where we did a little hike to a falls and bought some supplies (i.e. Smoky Mountain chocolate bars) and a bear.

Falls #1

Falls #3

We decided to head south to the Deep Creek area of the park on the Carolina side to do a hike to three waterfalls. We discovered on our way there that there is tubing in Deep Creek we could have done, had we brought swim suits.  Instead, we set out for what we thought was a 2.6 mile hike to see three falls.  We missed the trail map sign at the trail head and Em didn't realize the starter kit had a trail map in it so instead we navigated by the signs along the trail. Unfortunately those weren't that great, so we ended up taking an extra loop along the way that made it a 6 mile hike with a lot of up and down..  We did ultimately find the 3 falls but we could have found them without the extra 3.5 miles.  The second of the three falls was worth it though.

Falls #2, the extra 4 miles paid off in the end.

The whole family in front of the big falls.

A glimpse of the lake from a scenic pullout

We decided to not cut back through the park but instead to go around the west of side as the map made it not look so long.  In fact the first 10 miles or so also were going great, but then the multi-lane parkway ended and the curves began.  It ended up being twice as long time wise as cutting  through and very curvy, a lot of them you could only take at 10mph.  It was quite an adventure and we saw some beautiful scenes along the way, including Lake Fontana in North Carolina and an old style summer vacation resort on the lake.  One finger of the lake (or maybe it's own lake) actually was steaming, possibly from a power plant outflow we passed.

The turkey

The elk

During the course of Saturday we saw two new animals we hadn't seen in the park yet, wild turkey and elk. Overall it was a great day with many adventures.

The "new" baptist church in Cades Cove.

On Sunday we had a more chill day where we went back to Cades Cove to see some things we didn't see while riding and explore some of the old settlements.  Nothing to exciting but it was fun and about the right speed for our final day following  the day of big adventures.  This took a little longer than we had thought because we got caught in a "bear  jam".  Cars were backed up for 2 plus miles (on an 11 mile road) because a black bear yearling was asleep in a tree and people wanted to try and see him.  But since he was a asleep and way up in a tree, you basically saw a black lump, so we moved on.  We got some ice cream from the camp ground store in Cades Cove and headed back to the Resort for a leisurely evening and packing up to head to Gainesville Georgia.  During our drive home we discovered that you could also tube down the Little River near the Townsend entrance to the park that we didn't know about.  If we make it back, we will have to remember the tubing.