Smoky Mountain Trip Report 5/30 - 6/7

[Blessing and Miracle]

Great pictures, especially the old mill! Sounds like you all had a wonderful time! Can't wait to hear more.

[sammielynn]

Glad you had a good time in Tennessee. I live about an hour from Gatlinburg. We have not been there all summer, your pictures in the streams made we want to go. Might think about that for next week.

[luvhockey]

Originally Posted by sammielynn

Glad you had a good time in Tennessee. I live about an hour from Gatlinburg. We have not been there all summer, your pictures in the streams made we want to go. Might think about that for next week.

I envy you. I could definitely move there. TN has a hockey team so I'm good to go.

[askomsky]

I'm really enjoying your trip report!
I can't wait until my youngest is old enough to actually make most of the trips for geo catching. (Had to laugh about moving to TN bc they have a hockey team)

[luvhockey]

Friday 6/6: Our last day to play. We headed to the Greenbrier area of the park after breakfast at the Applewood restaurant. The apple fritters
were yummy as was all the breakfast. Breakfast comes with apple cider juleps--mmmmmm-- We got some to go for a snack later (fritters that is).

We drove out to the Greenbrier area and took the road to the end. This area is a quieter and much less known part of the park.
Got out the scavenger hike book and started on our way up Porters Creek trail to the Hiking Club Cabin.
We took note of the holes in the rocks that were for dynamite. Walked to a small hidden cemetery, saw the remains of a Model T in the woods and an awesome stone wall just off the path. We would've never known about these small hidden treasures w/o the book.


Looking at the old walls and buildings just makes you realize how much sweat was dropped on this land by our ancestors.
An interesting thing we saw and learned about is the way these people in the area built their barns. They are called cantilever barns. The reason is because in Europe during the early 1800's people were taxed by the amount of ground the buildings were built ON, not OVER. This enormous barn (look how tiny Blane is) is up the trail about 2 miles from the road in the middle of nowhere. Of course 150 yrs ago this was somewhere. The far right wall/brace is sitting on a wall of rock. The overhang is about 12 feet all the way around. Bryce just found this amazing. He loved looking at the architecture of some of the old buildings and mills. The thousands of hand made shingles, the huge rocks that had to be moved to plant small fields, the hundreds of axe marks on each hand hewn log.


The boys found some salamanders in a little stream that crosses the trail. Their second time finding some; the other was in a stream
we stopped at on Newfound Gap Rd. On our way back down the trail we saw a black snake about 4ft long. It had a big ole bulge in it's belly. A full snake is a happy snake. It was a few yards away down a little slope. Blane dropped his water bottle which slid and hit the snake.


I loved the big orange-red shelf fungus I saw on some fallen trees. They had bright black & red beetles on it. That's DH hand to show how big the orange thing was. Blane got a beetle to crawl on his hand. He was in heaven.


The boys had been working hard all week on their jr ranger books and picking up trash around the park. We stopped at the ranger station
in Greenbrier and no one was there. Spent about 2 hrs playing in a mountain stream for the last time.
Since this was the last day we had to go back to Sugarlands Visitor Center to turn in the Jr Ranger stuff. I'm glad we did. The boys brought 2 bags of trash to the desk along with their books and presented it to Ranger Dan.
He treated them great. He talked to them a long time very seriously about questions in the books. About how much they had helped
to preserve the park by getting trash picked up. They told him all the wildlife they had seen but were disappointed that they
didn't see a bear. He went in the back and came out with a bear skin for them to see and feel while he answered all their questions. He let
them hold it while he presented them with their badge/pin and certificates. We got some great pictures. I think he spent half an hour with
them. I'm a grateful Mom.


We ate at Texas Roadhouse before going back to the hotel to pack most everything.


Saturday 6/7: We checked out and ate one last time at the pancake place. I had to stop at the Scrapbook store on the way out of town.
I pick up many things for upcoming pages in my vacation book.

As an overview (I know, shut up already): I asked the boys what their favorite part of the trip was and to my surprise it wasn't Dollywood.
It was playing on the rocks & in the streams. I feel like they 'Got It' even at age 9 & 6. Oh, their parents got it too!

If you're still here, thanks for your time.
Angela

[askomsky]

I enjoyed your trip and it sounded really fun! I'm glad the boys learned a lot and had a great time!

Thanks for sharing.

[catnapfan]

Thanks for the great trip report. It has definitely given me food for thought for a future vacation.

[disneyforever]

Wow, what a wonderful trip. I enjoyed reading everything you wrote and seeing all your pictures you posted. (well, except for the snakes part LOL). I cannot wait to get back to Smokey Mountains again someday.

Thanks for posting!

[eaglesdare]

so glad you had a great time. i am very happy for you that the boys "got it".

[linanglab]

Love your TR! I have never heard of geocaching. Very interesting! You all sound like you had a great vacation!