Smoky Mountain National Park

Memorial Day Weekend was spent in the great outdoors - as it should be in my opinion.

Our base camp for the long weekend was a cute creek-side cabin in Whittier, NC just outside of Bryson City.

Activities included: hiking, hiking, campfires and more hiking. 

Bryson City

The town itself is very cute. It has a small mountain town charm.
We sampled the beers at Nantahala Brewery. Great little spot located in town near the train station.
Enjoyed great fresh fish bites and good hamburgers at the local favorite, Jimmy Mac's Restaurant.

Smoky Mountains

This free-admission National Park is beautiful with lots of trails including a portion of the Appalachian Trail. There are several creek-side campsites and lots of picnic areas. We even saw a large elk when entering the park in the morning.

One of many waterfalls in the park

We explored 4 hikes/areas:
Deep Creek - There were nice easy to moderate 5 mile hiking loops which followed a stream and past a few waterfalls. Many people were tubing. Tubes are available to rent for cheap all along the road that leads to Deep Creek.
Clingman's Dome - This very steep, paved 1 mile hike leads to a tower with amazing views. Clingman's Dome is the tallest point in the park.
Smokemont - This is a campground area with a nice 6 mile moderate hiking loop.
Lakeview Dr (Road to Nowhere) - This was our favorite loop hike. We started by walking through a long tunnel originally built for the road. Then when the road truly ends the trail begins. It was beautiful but narrow as it meandered around the forest. There is an additional 2.1 miles of steep trail we saved for next time that takes you down along the lakeshore.




Until my next trip to the Smokies this view from the top of Clingman's Dome will have to hold me over.

The Smoky Mountains get their name because of the (blue) smokey appearance of the mountains.