Morscherfamily

Woke up at 6 and drove north on the Skyline Drive. Stopped for breakfast at Big Meadows then drove further to Little Stony Man parking lot where we were supposed to meet our climbing guide, Andy Nichols, at 9. The pin he emailed me was for a different lot, but we found him. We hiked a half a mile to a cliff and learned how to climb. On our hike we were on a bit of the AT and learned about some plants and hiking tips. The cliff was 125’ and overlooked the valley. Andy explained about safety, equipment, showed us how to set up the rope. Max was a natural climber and climbed to the top. Andy encouraged him to keep climbing when he gets home. Maggie did great and also climbed to the top. ... read more

Today, I dragged the family to Cade’s Cove which is an area in the park that used to be a town. It is a 11-mile one-way loop with several historic homes, churches, etc.. It wasn’t that great and I'm sorry we went. It was crowded and required stopping and walking to many of the locations. We stopped at Cable Mill Historic Area and got some souvenirs and saw some historic buildings that had been moved to the site (two barns, a home and a mill). Drove out of Cade's Cove on Rich Mountain Road (dirt) and around back to Elkmont. This took way longer than expected. Then we picked up the trailer and left via Pigeon Forge which was Gatlinburg on steroids and the location of Dollywood and headed toward Shenandoah a day ahead of schedule. ... read more

It rained all night. In the morning we drove to Visitor Center and asked for Junior Ranger books which once again weren't sent with the materials I requested. Due to being over 13, we got a “not so junior ranger” flyer which requires attending three ranger events. It turns out we couldn't make three events, so this is another park that we didn’t get badges for. Junior Ranger requires participants (usually kids, but sometimes adults) to do activities to get familiar with a park. They usually require attending one ranger activity. When you are done you get sworn in as a Junior Ranger by a park ranger and get a plastic or wooden ranger pin. I have all of the pins from the other parks we've visited through the years in frames for the kids. We ... read more

We went on the Historic Tour which entered through the Natural Cave Opening. Before the tour they warned us of the "Fat Man's Misery" and that we would have to squeeze through some areas in the cave, and stoop in others. One man in the group bailed and another kept looking at everyone's midsections apparently to determine if they would make it!! We saw many of the classic cave sites. Mammoth Cave was out of Junior Ranger books. They didn’t send them when I wrote requesting them along with maps and camping info, so the kids didn’t get MC badges. We decided we didn’t want to spend another night which we had planned, so after lunch we drove toward Great Smoky Mountain National Park and spent the night at Adventure Bound RV park outside of Gatlinburg. ... read more

Started driving toward Mt Rainier National Park. Tossed around a lot of options, touching the Pacific, visiting friends, etc. and around lunch time we decided on going to North Cascades NP. Maggie wants to go home, Max wants to not hike and add to the number of states he’s visited. We did junior ranger at North Cascades, then drove through it looking for a campsite. The dams in North Cascades power 20% of Seattle. It was a very pretty park with some water activities. Ended up in Winthrop, Washington and got a place in a KOA (overflow, really just a patch of grass, no table). There’s a big r&b festival nearby this weekend and a Saturday and things are booked. Decided to start back home tomorrow. So, the 4th annual Morscher National Park trip is winding ... read more