Great Smoky Mountains Nat'l Park

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to Great Smoky
Lpaw just a bit tired still but we were ready to explore the great smokies. Great Smokies located south of Pigeon Forge for approximately 9 miles. to go to the park we had to go to Gatlinburg located just a mile north of the park. i was amazed to see that there were a large amount of what i call man-made attractions in this town: a tram to get you to see moutaintop views, a lift which serves that same purpose as a tram, ripley museum-aquarium-entertainment center, a haunted house by a river, and a space needle. not sure if i left out anything else. a huge amount of tourists crowded both sides of the street. i wonder if their primary goal was to visit the park or the town. it took us a little while to get through this small town due to the crowd. we got to the park finally and made our first stop at Sugarland Visitor center. we decided to visit water fall trail closest to the visitor center but once we got there we couldn't find parking and decided to drive further out to the next water fall trail which was 20 some miles west. we went to Abrams Falls located on Cades Cove loop road. i swear that i'll never take that loop again during holiday season. speed limit on the loop indicated 20 mph however in reality people went much slower than that. there were times that we were going 5 mph. i felt like we were on a train for kids in a theme park it just kept going sooooooo slowly. the trail was approximately 5 some mile roundtrip. we spent about an hour and a half on the way to the falls and much faster on the way back. Doug got a 5 min nap while laying on a fairly bumpy rock. i leant against the same rock immersing myself in the surrounding.

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Photos

turkeys in a meadow
we got to Cades Cove loop road. at the beginning of the loop, we saw turkeys walking in the meadow. i don't know which kind.

Doug in a blue vett
Doug waited for me patiently while i was trying to capture a picture of turkeys.

Abrams Falls
Abrams Falls trailhead just a little over half way into the loop

Wile Flowers
don't know the name of these flowers. there were everywhere on the trail. pretty pretty

Abrams Falls
after an hour and a half hike, we got to the falls. we rested our feet and laid on the rocks. it took quite a few tries before we found a more comfortable spot. Doug got his 5 min nap while i completely immersed in the sound of nature.

gatlinburg trolley
if you don't want to drive in to Gatlinburg, you can park your car at the park and ride just right after you leave Pigeon Forge and approach gatlinburg. don't know if it's free or not.

gatlinburg
Ripley in galinburg. it was right across the street from a restaurant where we had dinner. don't remember the name of the restaurant but will not recommend it.

view point
me on mountain top in Gatlinburg. we rode a tram up the mountain then transferred to a lift to get to this view point. i was surprised that they put a small theme park on the mountain top which is a mid point where we transferred to a lift.

Comments

[sippy]

Nice pictures
Hey Ariya! Nice pictures. So finally you bought yourself a camera. Keep taking nice pics and posting them.. Take care sippy