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| Eastern Tiger Swallowtail |
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| Avent Studio on Cucumber Gap trail |
We seem to have sorted out our storage of truck and trailer near Philadelphia when we fly home in 3 weeks. Roy got job done on truck at local Dodge garage and our decal for the car tax is in the post so we headed off to the Great Smoky mountains again to spend more time exploring.
After an annoying hour trying to find the road we wanted into the Smokies and then discovered when we got on it, that trailers over 22 ft were not allowed we retraced our route and finally arrived at the campsite just in time to grab one of the last sites.
Here we stayed at Elkmont Campground for three days, hiking the beautiful trails. We had a wonderful day on my birthday, visited Cades Cove (Cove means mountain valley here). We hiked 9 miles, saw some rare orchids and other lovely flowers, pretty Abrams Falls, five black bears, wild turkeys, two snakes, a coyote and white tailed deer - quite a day!
Just did 6 miles the next day to Rainbow Falls, a tough hike uphill all the way to the falls. Drove through Gatlinburg to get some supplies, set right on the edge of the Smoky Mountains - you drive out of beautiful trees and narrow road straight into the noise and throng of people, endless food, merchandise and entertainment - we didn't stop. We had thought about going to Pigeon Forge (Dollywood fame) but decided against that as the roads were heaving with traffic with a classic car rally taking place and reading the book it seemed like another Gatlinburg.
A quick trip back to Gatlinburg to find wifi in the basement office of a friendly outdoors shop (no McDonalds!) to send my son birthday wishes, I was amazed when I looked on the emails and Facebook to see all the lovely birthday wishes. I look forward to being able to read them properly and reply when we get wifi on a site.
We moved to the North Carolina side of the Smokies to Smokemont Campground for another 3 days. Managed to get wifi at the Cherokee Indian Reservation visitor center and spent a happy hour replying to all the wonderful birthday wishes I had received. Then did a 5 mile hike to three pretty waterfalls and would you believe it, just at the end of our trail - a massive thunderstorm! Roy obviously thinks there is going to be a water shortage - he spent the evening sat under the awning collecting the run off rainwater and pouring it into our tank! And the thunder rolled all night and rained all next day.
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| Black snake helped me celebrate my 63rd birthday |
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| pink lady's slipper orchid |
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| trillium |
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| yellow lady's slipper |
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| worn out half way through my birthday! |
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| black bears at Cades Cove in Smokies |
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| Abrams Falls at Cades Cove |
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| John Cable Mill at Cades Cove |
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| Cades Cove primitive Baptist church |
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| Rainbow Falls |
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| Rainbow Falls |
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| Fire Pink |
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| Indian Creek Falls |
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| Juney Whank Falls |
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| Mingus Grist Mill - Roy learning how to grind corn |
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| Mingus Grist Mill in the Smokies |
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| comfort eating during the storm that lasted 24 hours |
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| stunning tiny flowers at Newfound Gap in Smokies |
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