We hit the road early and made our way to Pigeon Forge, TN. Dogs aren't allowed at Great Smoky so we had to make a decision: hang with the dogs for 2 days on the campground and just drive the scenic roads or board the dogs. We decided to board the dogs so a. we could hike and b. because they could probably use a rest! We boarded them about 20 minutes away at the Smoky Mountain Pet Resort.
The first thing we saw was Dollywood - who knew?!?
We set up our camp at Elkmont Campground after visiting the welcome center. We were in the way back of the campground so it was quiet and we had a trail right behind us. After we set up camp we went to explore the trail... here's what we found"
Old dilapidated vacation homes from over 80 years ago. They were pretty creepy/awesome/weird.
Thor destroyed this one.
"What happened to my house?!"
The hike we went on was gorgeous. We walked up the Jakes Creek trail and some of the Cucumber Trail. We saw a ton of waterfalls and followed the pretty creek the entire time. Thor liked it too...
We even had to cross some log bridges to get over the creek at some points.
And....
We saw...
a...
BEAR!!!! It was a baby bear and we didn't stick around to meet its mama! This another abandoned cabin that is located on an offshoot of the trail. This one is not nearly as damaged as the others we saw which made it even cooler/creepier!
Again we saw some cool flowers and mushrooms
We were trying to do this loop hike but couldn't quite figure out the loop and were tired of going up hill for 2 hours straight so we turned back. The signage in GSMNP isn't as good a some of the other parks but it is also free, which many of the other parks aren't so oh well!
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