Autumn Love

My sister and her boyfriend invited me to go on a trip with them to the Smoky Mountains. This is great, because I hadn't previously planned a hiking trip to the eastern half of the country, so having someone else pay for a hotel there so we can go on a hiking trip sounded like a great deal and I am very thankful I got to go here.

It was a long drive, but it was worth it. We initially arrived in Pigeon Forge to eat and stay for the night. Quite frankly I did not enjoy Pigeon Forge. I like to travel to rural areas and escape the crowds, but this town was basically a huge and very busy theme park. I'm sure many people enjoy this town but it wasn't really for me. But it wasn't the focus of our trip anyways. We came to hike, and hike we did, even though the trails were very busy and we had trouble parking.

The next morning we headed into Smoky Mountains National Park. I don't remember the names of the trails we went on, but in addition to some extravagant fall colors, we got to see some lovely rivers and waterfalls. They were fun hikes, and were uphill enough to give us a workout. My sister's dog had a great time on these trails too. We hiked a river trail after the first day, and before we left the state, we also went to see Cherokee Lake.

Cherokee Lake was accessible from a hiking trailhead near a neighborhood. We traversed a pretty big segment of it's shoreline, and at one point found some heavily eroded rocks that reminded me of the Bisti badlands. The water levels seemed like they were much lower than what they used to be.

At one point we drove up to an overlook that had a great view of Gatlinburg. I don't remember all of the trip because it was quite a long time ago and I never wrote about it, but I did enjoy it. If I ever go back myself, I intend to stay a lot longer than we did that time.