Tennessee Summer Vacation PART THREE // THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS // Day 1
After a couple more hours on the road we made our way into the “Foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains” and our new home for the week, “Dollys Doorstep”. We won’t go into how long it took us to find the place, or how many times we passed the check-in office, instead lets focus on the beautiful drive in, and the amazing location of our little cabin.
Dolly’s Doorstep
After unpacking, grocery shopping for essentials and “Holden-proofing” the cabin we headed out to the porch to watch the sky fade into night.
The next morning we woke pretty early to embark on our hike up to Laurel Falls.
You can still see a tiny moon on the top right of the image
We chose Laurel Falls for a couple reasons. One of the most important being that it’s a very family friendly hike with a big payoff. At only 2.3 miles roundtrip, and paved we figured it would be a good one for us to start with.
Don’t be fooled though, the path is still uneven and a little precarious in sections with large drops. A week after we got home from the Smokies a woman had to be rescued after falling off the trail.
There is an option to continue on another 2.7 miles to the Fire Tower at the top of Cove Mountain Trail. This is one of the only towers that still remain in the park and no longer operates as a forest fire monitoring tower. The tower has recently been modified into an air quality monitoring station and hikers are not allowed to climb the tower as a result.
We arrived at the trailhead early, which as we later learned was pretty key. As we made our way down the trail after reaching the waterfall the crowds had started to fill in. By contrast, our hike up was pretty quiet and relaxing.
With that being said, there was plenty of whining and Jordan carried Holden on his shoulders most of the time.
Of course we also had to take a break where Isla mostly just shook her butt for the camera, but as the hike went on both the kids attitudes seemed to improve.
This picture is so blurry, but I love how much fun Holden is having
Shortly after our snack break we started to see and hear signs of Laurel Falls.
The kids had fun climbing around the Falls and getting their feet wet, although Holden wasn’t as big of a fan once he realized just how cold the water was.
They even posed for some pictures together albeit both looking in totally different directions-LOL!
My favorite photo of the day has to be this rare family photo of the four of us together. In my opinion, this was more of a natural wonder than Laurel Falls.
After the hike we headed into Gatlinburg for some lunch and exploring.
Lunch at Loco Burro Cantina
The kids both loved riding the burro after lunch.
Sugarlands Shine Moonshine Distillery in Downtown Gatlinburg
With the popularity of the reality show “Moonshiners” on Discovery Channel, and a 2009 law legalizing the production of moonshine in Sevier County more and more distilleries have started popping up in the Gatlinburg area. This particular photo shows moonshine at Sugarlands Shine. There are currently three operating distilleries in the Smokies, Ole Smoky Moonshine Distillery, Sugarlands Shine and Doc Collier Moonshine Distillery. You can read more about the areas moonshine history here. I can’t speak to the moonshine at Sugarlands as we only stopped for a shot glass, so you’ll just have to go see for yourselves!
After stopping in at a few more shops we made our way to the gondola at Ober Gatlinburg, a ski and amusement destination in downtown Gatlinburg. I wasn’t especially excited to board the gondola up the mountain, but knew it was our only way up.
Not surprisingly, Holden LOVED it.
Once we got to the top we took another death trap even further up the mountain to ride the alpine slide back down it.
Jordan took the kids on the waterslide next, and they loved it. Ultimately though I’m not sure we would do Ober Gatlinburg again, at least not in the Summer. The lines are long, and the employees don’t move people through very quickly. Its also pricey and all the attractions can be found elsewhere in the Smokies. The views are pretty and the ride up is nice… if you’re not afraid of heights ;).
We headed back to the house for a quick shower and some fun in the hot tub before heading to dinner in Pigeon Forge.
After dinner we headed over to a Go Kart place that I’ve been visiting ever since I was a little kid! You can see some past blog posts at this spot here AND here. Unfortunately, we had told Isla that we thought she was big enough to drive the big go karts by herself…. WE. WERE. WRONG. She was devastated! She even started scheming about how she could make herself taller to drive her own car. The best idea she came up with was stuffing Kleenex in her shoes to make her appear taller. Obviously we put a stop to this idea immediately although I have to applaud her ingenuity.
I can’t EVEN with this kid - LOL!!!
Holden, on the other hand had an absolute BLAST!
I love the smile on that sweet face
Our first day in the Smokies went exactly as we could have hoped for. We went to sleep exhausted. With full bellies, and lots of new memories visions of Dollywood danced in our heads.