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| Riding through the "smoke" |
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| Getting ready to ride |
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| A view from Cades Cove. |
This morning we got up early and packed up some food and
headed to Cades Cove in the park. On
Wednesdays and Saturdays, they close this 11 mile loop to cars until 10am. We rented bicycles and headed out. It was so gorgeous! There was a soft fog that lifted as the
morning went on. Lovely valleys, wooded
areas, and historic
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| first wild life of the ride. |
homes. It took a
long time as we stopped to see deer, admire the views, and watch more
bears! We hadn’t gone far when we
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| The bears! |
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| A deer that looked surprised to see us. |
discovered 4 bears (mom and 3 cubs) up in a cherry tree. We watched them a long time and took
pictures. It was fun to watch them shake
the branches and climb. Finally, we
decided to continue on our way. Later on
we discovered another tree with 3 more bears.
We got even better views this time.
The girls were in heaven. A park
volunteer told Laura that she got to
bottle feed 5 week old bear cubs whose mother had died and Laura thought that
sounded so amazing that she started planning a future career as a park
ranger. It was a lot of up and down on the ride and we
were all pretty worn out at the end, but so so glad we did this. Probably one of the most amazing things we’ve
ever done as a family.
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| A view of Cades Cove on the ride |
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| One of our stops. |
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| At Laurel Falls. |
After turning in the bikes, checking out the gift shop and
getting some soft serve, we tumbled back into the car and took the scenic drive
back towards home. This park is
breathtakingly beautiful! We stopped for
a
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| Laurel Falls |
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| A random roadside falls |
couple of lovely waterfalls and then took a hike to Laurel Falls. They were impressive (and quite popular!),
but we sort of wish we’d known that the 2.6 mile round trip “easy” hike was
pretty much all uphill to the falls. At least
coming down was easy. Our legs are
pretty tired after the biking and hiking.
On paper it seems like it should be very doable, but in reality, we’re
worn out!
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| Sleeping Beauty #2 |
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| Sleeping Beauty #1 |
At that point we decided to head back to our room and
currently both girls are sound asleep and we are all enjoying some quiet, down
time. Tomorrow we do the Biltmore and
then 3 days of more park adventures!
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