{Day 5} Exploring The Great Smoky National Park

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Today we decided to spend ALL day driving through the Smokies! I will say make sure you wear comfortable shoes, clothing, bring snacks and some water. You will want to get out of you car to explore a bit.. There is also some visitors centers (if you want some maps or souvenirs) and a few places with restrooms. We drove through to Cades Cove. It is an 11-mile one way loop and I highly suggest this! Be prepared to see some wildlife, and I'm not just talking about birds and squirrels! We saw: turkey, deer and BEARS (yes, plural!!). A total of 5 bears in one day! Now when someone sees a bear everyone stops and I do mean everyone. If you are wanting to see this place with little traffic I would suggest going early in the morning. The cove opens at 10am but the National Park is open 24/7 (unless otherwise stated).

There is multiple places to pull over, but be careful, the roads are narrow and very curvy. There are also several walking trails some longer than others.. Again, we needed more time to really see it all, but with 2 kids with us this day we did not want to exert them too much. We saw multiple grave yards, an old hotel, old churches and homes. Very surreal to see how people lived back then. The kids even enjoyed it and were interested (6 and 7 years old). In fact, the 7 year old boy said this was 'his favorite trip ever' mainly because he got to through rocks!

After a long day some us went into Pigeon Forge to some of the attractions there and the rest of us went into downtown to eat at a Mexican restaurant called Loco Burro. I know us trying another Mexican place but it was amazing! From the live music on the roof top bar to the one-eared mechanical burro (donkey).

♥ Ems

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