Tennessee

We planned on spending a week in Tennessee for our summer vacation. But, Thomas and I have been taking a lot of time off recently and we also didn’t have many opportunities to get away for a full week. So, we decided to do a quick 4-night vacation. Jack and I got back from the FSU orientation on Thursday and we all left for Tennessee at 5am Saturday morning. The drive up went really well. After stopping at Walmart for supplies, we got to our rental around 4. I thought maybe we would do something, but the rental house had a hot tub and a movie/game room, so people were content with getting food from Kroger and spending the night at the rental.

 We got up earlyish on Sunday and went to Cades Cove, which is an 11-mile driving loop in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There are old churches and cabins and other things that you can get out and walk to while making the loop. This had been on my list of activities since we started going to Tennessee four years ago, but for whatever reason, it just never happened. So, I was excited. We got there around 9 and started the slow drive. We stopped a couple of times and then did a .5 mile walk to one of the cabins. While there, we saw a sign for Abrams Falls. It didn’t say how far it was, but a woman was walking out and we asked her about it. She said it was around 6 miles roundtrip and was “worth it”. We decided to go for it.

View from one of the old cabins. Thomas is good at these more artistic shots.

This was probably poor planning on our part. It was relatively close to lunchtime, not everyone had their water bottle (we were only counting on the 0.5 mile hike when we left the van), and we didn’t actually know how far or how difficult it would be. But, in a rare display of Wilson spontaneity, we pressed forward. Shortly after beginning, we did come to another parking lot that told us from there it was 2.5 miles to the falls. Long story short, we ended up hiking around 7 miles. We learned it was a ‘moderate’ hike and it did include several steepish areas (Thomas thought it was easy, the rest of thought moderate was appropriate). We enjoyed it, the hike mostly followed a river and the sound of running water alongside the stunning views, was pretty amazing. Although we did not find the falls very impressive.

Anna with Abrams falls

We called this one our Beatles shot :)

After the hike, we had a picnic lunch at a cool little settlement area that included a cantilevered barn, a grist mill, blacksmith shop and other buildings. And, while walking along a stream, we saw our first bear! Every time we go to Tennessee I hope to see a bear and it finally happened. Then, on our drive out we saw several more bears, including a mama with 3 cubs. It was a fantastic day for spotting wildlife!

We stopped at a Mountain Coaster on our drive home and arrived at the rental around 6. It was a long day. We ended up hiking/walking around 10 miles. And, 10 mountainous miles is a lot different than 10 theme park miles! I was embarrassedly sore the next day. But, I pushed through and we spent a full day at Dollywood! We got there at opening and stayed almost until closing. There had been rain in the forecast and similar to when we went in November, I think that kept the crowds away. We were able to do all our favorites multiple times. Luke rode the bumper cars 4 times in a row, he would just get off and run back in line. The weather was beautiful and we loved our day there.

Luke loved the bumper cars

We did this one a bunch of times too, trying to see how many different oldies songs we could get. It was pretty cute.

Tuesday, we planned to go to Anakeesta, but saw that the treetop trail was closed. Some people wanted to go back to Dollywood, some wanted to go to the Heritage Center (which we passed on the way to Cades Cove). Ultimately, Jack, Thomas and Anna went to the Heritage Center. They picked us up after lunch and we all headed to Dollywood. It was much more crowded and we didn’t stay too long. We came back, packed up and went to bed reasonably early.

 

That concluded our quick Tennessee trip. Everyone had a good time and said it was worth the drive, even for just a few days.