Smoky Mountain Vacation in Tennessee

This year we went to the Smoky Mountains with some great friends. After that long drive, we decided to do an all-day hike on Mt. LeConte. The little ones made it to the first water fall, Grotto Falls, before deciding they were done. We learned a lot about Tennessee Smoky Mountains with this hike. First, it is absolutely gorgeous and mysterious at the same time - like walking through an adventure in Middle Earth (for all you J.K.Tolkien fans). Second, it really should be called the Rocky Mountains with all that river rock all over the trails that your hiking on. Third, they have no clue on how to mark or measure a trail. The only trail marker at the beginning says it's a 13 mile round trip hike to the summit and back. However, all our smart devices said it was 18 miles. Maybe they had a little too much of Granny's moonshine, I don't know, but it took 9 hours to complete and we were so done with hiking for the week. The next day we had the most fun with river rafting. In fact we wanting to go back the next day, but the river was running to fast according to the rafting companies. One of our guides were brave enough to take on a group of our boys himself. We went over 4 grade 4 rapids and 5-6 grade 3s. Ava fell out between two of the grade 4s, but we pulled her in just before going over the next one, phew!  Our 3rd day we went to Cherokee Territory in North Carolina where we saw a living Indian village and lots of pretty mountain views. The next day was rainy so we went to Wonderworks Museum and played around. Our final day we went shopping, took a tour on at Tennessee Whiskey distillery where the kids watched the dancing water fountain and we sampled different flavored moonshine. Then it was time to say good bye to great family vacation.

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