The Great Smokey Mountains

 The Great Smokey Mountains, this is our second time at this national park having stayed there on our third trip in 2017.  I had a lot of hikes planned back then but it rained us out every day and we only made it up to Clingman's dome. This time we’re staying on the other side of the mountains in North Carolina.  (Shout out to North Carolina for having awesome waves and awesome mountains.  How very California of you.) This trip I didn't plan a head so didn't know what was on this side of the mountain and we didn't want to travel to the things we missed that first year.  One thing I thought of that we wanted to do and couldn't the first year is Andrew's Bald we saw the trail when we went to Clingman's dome, but a ranger had told us another strong storm was moving in and didn't recommend it.  This year since we didn't have anything planned and Becky wanted to see if we could actually see anything from Clingman's dome this time we headed that way with the idea of doing the 3.6 mile Andrew Balds trail, the 1/2 mile straight up Clingman's dome walk, and then hit a waterfall.  We did the first two but didn't make it to a waterfall.  The Andrew's Bald hike was pretty awesome really mossy and looked like we stepped into another world. The hike there was better than the destination which was just a clearing.  It did rain here quite a bit off and on and was extremely hot and humid.  That made sleeping pretty tough, we thought we'd be up in the mountains enough to cool down but it was still too low to make a difference. We were supposed to do three nights, but after two sweaty nights we bugged out and moved down the road a bit and stayed at a KOA in Knoxville.

Here are some pictures from this year's Great Smokey Mountain adventure and an unplanned but surprisingly fun stop in Knoxville. 

Small view from the hike to Andrews Bald

Our campsite at the Smokemont campground in Great Smokey Mountain National Park.
It It was raining so we were huddled under the awning very much like our first time to this park. 

We could see a cut line in the rain, so Luke went out to check it out and stand where rain was cut off

It was Friday night, pizza night (yes we take it very seriously, a little to seriously) so we drove back into Cherokee to find a pizza place. On the way we saw a tank by the road so stopped, Marcus had mentioned that he'd love to see a tank up close when were were going by all these military bases. This was at a veteran's memorial park. Marcus' vacation checklist item... CHECK.

Our spot on Loop F of the campground.  It's on the inside there's a strip of sites that are on the river just to the left in the picture.  If you stay here try to get a river site.  I got reservation late for this stop so took what was available but it would have been a much better time by the river.

At a pull out, we're in the clouds and it was a lot cooler as we went up into the mountains more.

We made it ot the Clingmans Dome parking lot, ready to start our Andrew's Bald Hike.

After stepping in a ways, we could tell it wasn't going to be an ordinary hike

It was like stepping into a fairy garden. Very Mossy.

Sky started to clear a bit so took any view pictures I could while we had the chance.

So very, very mossy

Trees on rocks

Close up of the moss, it's like another forest in there.

It opened up and we reached the bald

Becky needed a picture with the flowers

Group picture

Heading back

It was mostly downhill going in so up hill on the way out.

We finished everyone had fun on the hike.

While we rested before taking the uphill to the dome Marcus and Lucas decided to do some rock climbing instead.

This picture is a big deal. Lucas, mister afraid of hights sat on the ledge on his own accord.

And we're heading up, it's only a 1/2 mile but it's very uphill

Clingman's Dome

View from the top, we got to see more than clouds this time. Yay!

Becky and her young men

The Appalachian Trail goes through here so of course we had to run down again and take a look. 
It's only a few yards off the paved Clingman's dome trail. 

White blaze of the Appalachian Trail

Walking down is so much easier.

Marcus playing in the stream by the campground.
The air hammock is getting used as a boat again, which is the only time they ever get used.

Cool bridge over the river at the campground's river trail

Becky and Marcus were playing in the river, and took a non-sanctioned log bridge to get over to the nature trail 

River from one of the campsites by us that wasn't occupied at the moment.
Try to get a river spot if you ever stay here, they are pretty cool sites.  

Our site again, no air and it was hot and muggy so spent a lot of time outside.

Since it was so hot sleeping, we decided to head out a day early. It was quite a drive with the camper over the pass in the park, but we made it. We got a spot at the Knoxville KOA, it was a small gravel parking lot looking KOA, but it was clean, they had a good deep swimming pool, and a pretty cool game room.  We needed laundry so I went over and started a couple loads of laundry just doing what was needed to get through the rest of the trip. While over there I walked into the rec room and found a Galaga video game machine.  So I had 19 dollars' worth of quarters and only needed a few bucks for the wash so sent a call out to the kids.  "They have Galaga, and I have quarters get over here".  Luke came first and we played some games, then the rest of the gang came over and we started playing some pool. Becky dominated the pool table.

Marcus played a lot of pool on his phone this trip I guess, he thought it would carry over to the real world... it did not.

Then some air hockey.  We really got into it.  Lucas is pretty good, but I was able to put him in his place.

Spent some time in their pool, it's 9 feet deep I love a good deep pool. 

Our spot at the KOA, pretty basic but level enough we could leave it hooked up. Great place to stop and a good choice leaving early, everyone had a good night's sleep, and we took a couple hours off our drive to our next stop at the land between the lakes. I added a few new stickers to the trailer this year, and Becky also decided to add the blogs website to the camper after we had a nice conversation with a neighbor in Conagree, they were interested in our trips. It always seems odd to say well why don't you check out our blog. Thought is they can figure it out themselves if it's on the camper. Not sure how I feel about that mainly because she hasn't been writing much this trip.  So do me a favor and let her know in the comments that you'd like to hear more of her stories.