Our weekend in the Smokies

Ok, well I would adventure to say that no one would have believed that Tennessee would have had snow before all of you "Yankees", but we did! Kind of, in the mountains at least! Jarret had a few extra vacation days to use so we took a weekend to go to the Great Smoky Mountains, Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and Sevierville. We left on Sunday Nov. 16 and got back today Nov. 17. Morgan had her first night away from home and it went perfectly. So back to the snow. We wanted to go to Clingman's Dome which is the highest point in Tennessee and the second highest point east of the Mississippi. We got to the road that leads to the Dome and it was closed. So we went to the visitor's center and asked why. They said that there was ice and about 6 inches of snow up there. WOW snow in Tennessee!!! So we decided to go back to Laurel Falls which we passed getting to the Dome. We had a great hike.



Here are some pictures of the hike:

Jarret is worried about falling off the cliffs!



I was worried about the bears! Luckily there were none!


This was the view as we were walking down from the falls.

Morgan's first hike and the waterfall at the top!



Here is how Morgan was most of the hike. Many people we passed asked if they could be carried like her!





Then we decided to go into Gatlinburg. As we got back to the road that was closed, it was now open! So we drove the 13 miles to get to the Closed Road sign for Clingman's dome. But it was not a wasted drive! We were able to get to the Tennessee/North Carolina state line (Newfound Gap)



Morgan and Daddy playing in the snow!


The beautiful trees with the gorgeous blue skies!

This was what it looked like when we started our assent.

Here we are at the look out of Newfound Gap. It was only 23 degrees here!

Part of the Appalachian Train if you look closely you see how far it is to Maine!

In the car on the way up. It was so amazing. Jarret and I have driven many places and seen these mountains countless number of times. We have never seen them like this. We had to remind ourselves that we can have this all the time and we need to stop and remember how beautiful the scenery is around here!

As we got back yet again to the visitor's center the road was again closed, so we got in just in time! It was quite icey in places and as we left the lookout there were people coming out of the Dome road so we missed that, but still enjoyed ourselves!

We then went to our hotel and let Morgan take a small nap. We decided to eat at the Bass Pro Shop in Sevierville. We had spinach queson dip and shared a mahi mahi salad. It was yummy and just enough.

On Monday we got a few people done on our shopping list at the Tanger Outlets. I got to check 8 people off my list and got Morgan some new clothes from Carters and we got her first Christmas dress! I also got a pair of hiking boots for the "rugged" trails we plan to do in the Spring!

So our vacation took us only and hour from home but it felt like we were in a totally different place. It was weird to see the same news cast that we would have at home. We really enjoyed ourselves and Morgan's first experience away from home was an enjoyable one! Next step, Thanksgiving!