Tennessee - A 3 Part Miniseries (3)

A photographic recap of our family trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains.

Part 1 - Cabin Life

Part 2 - Gatlinburg

Part 3 - The Smoky Mountains

Gatlinburg is nice, but where we spent most of our time was hiking in Smoky Mountain National Park. What a great park. It's absolutely gorgeous. It's well designed and managed. The natural features are diverse and awe-inspiring. There are trails for everyone from toddlers to hardcore hikers. It's no wonder it's the most visited national park in America.

The first day we hiked along a gorgeous mountain stream to a neat little waterfall.



It was a very kid friendly trail and tossing stones in the water was quite popular. Each morning after this, Truman woke up chanting, "I got togo throw the rocks!"



A rare mountain wood faerie. Or imp. I get confused.



Jameson insisted on being photographed as if he was an explorer who discovered this waterfall.



Are you still considered a hiker if your feet never touch the ground?



Our second, more ambitious, day of hiking took us much higher into the mountains. Um, breathtaking?



This was the easy part of the trail.



Luckily we had an experienced guide with us.



The kids were excellent. Especially the one that got to ride the whole way strapped to my chest.



Gotta stop for sammiches along the way.



Like Nike always says, "If you're going to get eaten by a bear, look good doing it." Kip and Corey, the world's best dressed hikers, are now affectionately known as Todd and Margo.



Doug and Caroline - We were going to hike up to New Hampshire to see you, but we weren't sure if we had packed enough peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.