Tubing the Little River at Elkmont Campground

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Tubing is an adventure! This is something I’d heard about from my mother-in-law, who is a Texan. I think it’s common to go tubing in rivers where she’s from. Me, I’d never heard of such a thing before I’d met Andrew.

When I read up on Elkmont Campground at the Great Smoky Mountains, I read something about how people tube down the Little River there. There are videos on YouTube, and it looks to be a lot of fun. Our campsite is right on the Little River, so I was excited to try it!

You need to bring your own tubes for tubing. For Christmas, I got river tubes for my mother-in-law and the kids. I also got the kids some life vests. So, we were prepared! Or so we thought.

As it turns out, there are some rapids on the Little River through the campground! I think this is a stretch that adventurous older children and adults would really enjoy. With kids who have never been tubing and aren’t great swimmers, it was a little intimidating! We ended up going down a shorter, quieter stretch a couple times. Even though we didn't go far, it was still exciting. Colleen tried to go a little farther but got dumped out after one of the rapids. Let me tell you: Those rocks get slick! We all had Keens or other good creek shoes on, but they didn't help much. It was hard for her to make her way back.

I kind of wanted to try doing a longer stretch without the kids, but it took a lot of time to go in and out of the creek for our short distance. By the time the kids were done, we were kind of done, too.

That evening, we set out to see the fireflies again. This time, we were with Gene and Carol. A local man was thrilled when he found out my in-laws lived in Montana. He told us about a “secret spot” to watch the fireflies. It was hard to understand exactly the place he was describing. We tried to find it when we arrived but had no luck.

We set up along the Little River Trail again. The synchronous fireflies were still amazing, but perhaps not quite as stunning as the night before. Last night, they were better facing north from the trail. Tonight, they were better facing south.

I love watching the fireflies, but the kids are exhausted by the end of the night. They’re also disappointed that there’s not enough time to have a campfire and roast marshmallows. I think we’ll take a break from the fireflies tomorrow and check them out again on our last night.

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Photos

The Kids and their Grandma, Ready for Tubing!
Our campsite, B007, was right on the Little River. My in-law's campsite, E11, was also pretty close to the river. We thought maybe we could put in by their campsite and get out by ours. As it turns out, there are too many rapids for us around the E and D loop. We ended up just tubing down the B loop.