After the Tennessee Relays Jonny was able to spend some time of Nikki, Stephanie and I. We waited for him to finish cheering on his team and get back to his hotel and shower. We finally left around 10:30PM and headed for Pigeon Forge where we had reservations at The Inn at Christmas Place. It was a Bavarian hotel with a Christmas Theme year around. Other than the Christmas decorations everywhere the hotel was nice and the room and beds were comfortable. The omelets, bacon and sausage were good, and after we all ate we packed up and headed out to the The Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The concierge at the hotel gave us a couple of recommendations and we decided on the Grotto Falls trail which is 2.6 miles round trip to the Falls and back. We headed into Gatlinburg and because it was early and shops were still closed, we drove through without any issues. We turned left at light #8 and headed out to the trailhead. As soon as we left town and were in the National Park, we saw wild turkey everywhere and even saw a few whitetail deer.
Turkey were seen everywhere in the park.
The scenery was beautiful although we could still see the scars from the fire which started in November of 2016. We stopped along a lookout and took a few pictures and headed up the rest of the way.
Lookout on the way to the trailhead to Grotto Falls
We make it up to stop #5 which was the trailhead to Grotto Falls. We say lots of beautiful streams and running water on the way to the falls and saw a few local species of birds and insects.
Little stream coming out of the undergrowth
Jonny climbing off the trail
The falls were pretty and as they were posing for pictures, Jonny got a hand full of water and splashed Stephanie which you can see in the video.
Stephanie returned the favor which you can see in the photos below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BacJtqg-ce4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BacJtqg-ce4
Just below the falls
We continued on beyond the falls for a bit and then headed back down where we spotted this guy sunning on a log.
Garter Snake sunning.
The kids wanted to see a black bear and we didn’t see any along the trail so before heading back to drop Jonny off with his team at the meet, we drove over to Cade’s Cove and took the auto tour. The entire loop is 11 miles, but we got stuck in a terrible traffic jam along the single lane one way road. We got up to where all the excitement was and the kids and Nikki got out to view the Mama bear and her cubs. We stayed for a few minutes and then headed back on the paved road to finish our trip. We got caught behind some people leisurely driving along at under 5 MPH and it was going to take way to long to get back. We got off the main loop and took a dirt road shortcut over to a place where we could take Rich Mountain Road out of the park. Rich Mountain Road is nothing more than a forest road that is gravel and switchbacks and another one way. We decided to take the chance and headed out of the park using that road. It wasn’t bad as there were no ruts or anything and my car handled it well as long as we kept it under 25 MPH. Along the way we saw a pack of wild boar and 100 feet further down the road down the ravine there was another mother bear and cubs.
Wild boar on Rich Mountain Road
Shortly thereafter we got out of the park and to a paved two way road. We had Jonny back to the University of Tennessee an hour before his bus left and we headed out of Knoxville for home. We dropped Stephanie at home and said hello to Marcus and Braxton again. We at dinner with Stephanie and Marcus and then headed home and arrived after 11:00PM where we were greeted by happy dogs that we didn’t totally abandon them.