All great vacations leave us wanting to see more and this fall break trip was no exception. We had superb weather and every day was more gorgeous and colorful with fall leaves.
On our cabin deck at sunrise...
...and a view through the living room window.
We drove to hike the Laurel Falls trail.
This trail was extremely popular and paved.
Our trail hikes take so long due to all the fun climbing!
I wish my photography could do the fall color justice! It was stunning.
Just so so beautiful! This is our first time to see such a concentration of such gorgeous fall color. The mountains are filled with lush forests.
We made it to Laurel Falls. According to the national park website, they receive on average of 85 inches of rain a year and during wet years peaks like Clingmans Dome and Mt. Le Conte receive over 8 feet of rain!
Walking down to the parking lot area.
These areas are so popular that the parking lots are often overflowing and so we had to park along side the road and walk to the trail head.
We stopped at a camping area and bend of the river called "Elkmont". A pretty area for a picnic lunch! This is "Little River".
We drove to explore the "Noah 'Bud' Ogle Place". This was a neat self-guided tour that helped you imagine what it was like in the backwoods community in 1879. This area was not very conducive to farming but they made a living here. They raised animals and gardened. They had running water with a wooden trough on the back of the house.
In the barn.
They had a great nature trail we hiked. The forest was filled with rhododendrons and well worn tree root steps.
tub mill and wooden water trough
It was bound to happen that someone fell in the creek! The icy cold water gave Juliette a shock but in no time she was running around, soggy shoes and socks and all!
The views are pretty amazing! No wonder why this place has unbelievable traffic this time of year!
We then drove through Gatlinburg to find the Roaring Fork auto tour.
You definitely need low gear for this tour...our brakes were rather spongy by the end!
Such a fun and amazing trip!!!! It took about 6 hours from Gaitlinburg to make it back to Indiana. Not a bad drive at all...especially the interstate drive from Tennessee was so beautiful!
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