Smoky Moutains National Park

Our first National Park!!!
We stayed at a campground in Townsend, TN, called Smoker Holler RV Resort.  It was short and sweet- full hook up site, no bath house or laundry, this was perfectly fine for us!  It was in a perfect location for us to be able to get into the park each day without costing us an arm and a leg!!  (it is not uncommon for some of the campgrounds to charge $70+ a night for a spot!)
We basically drove every road that you could in the National Park.  Our favorites were the Roaring Fork Motor Nature Trail, Little River Road, and Laurel Creek Road.  To us they were the most beautiful areas.  Most of each of them you had water on one side or the other of the car.  Lots of people say that Cades Cove drive is great and that you must do it- we were not big fans! The entire loop is a one way, single lane road with some historic homesteads and other things along the way.  There were so many people that it took over an hour to do the loop (which is normal).  There was not enough room to park to look at any of the historic places, even if we wanted to stop.  And the scenery was a lot of fields!  Come on, being from Kansas, we have seen enough fields!



We also enjoyed hiking to a few of the waterfalls.

Laurel Falls

The Sinks

Grotto Falls

We also did the hike of Clingman's Dome.  Unfortunately at the top we couldn't see too much, but the view from the parking area was amazing!

I think the most exciting part was that the kids were able to earn their first Jr Ranger Badges.  They were super excited to complete the work and take part in a Ranger led program to earn the badge.  Once they were sworn in, they found out they get free ice cream a the campgound shop!  Their excitement quickly changed to getting ice cream! 


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