Wendy and I decided to get away for a few days for our 12th anniversary so we ultimately decided to go to Gatlinburg. I had a lot of good memories visiting the smokies in the past and thought it would be a little nicer to go there than go to the beach and I am not that much of a beach person anyway. We were pleasantly surprised when we got there. It rained the first night, so it was in the low 80's to high 70's. We didn't take that many pictures the first night but just enjoyed ourselves. We did a lot of walking the streets, visiting shops, looking at the tasty treats that many stores were selling and enjoying the view of the mountains in the background. We took a ride on the sky lift that night just before dark.
Day 2 was sunny and hotter. It started out around 89 degrees or more. We revisited the streets to purchase some items and souvenirs, ate a pancake/waffle breakfast, played some mini golf, rode the sky lift again to get some pictures in the daylight, saw a local visiting ground hog while we were up there, and saw a lot of t-shirt stores. By this time, we were hot and tired of walking. We wanted to get in the van and ride. Well, this turned out to be the best thing we had done. The Motor Trail was shaded and beautiful, the Ogle family home was beautiful, in its own perspective. Then we headed down Hwy. 441 toward New Found Gap, along this route was so beautiful. There were a lot of trail heads and lookouts along the way. We stopped at several locations, but when we got to New Found Gap, we were so amazed at the temperature drop and the cool breeze. We were almost cold. When we go back we will have definitely have to hike some trails. The trails were so clean and the trees made real good shade so it would be a pleasant walk. We came back down the mountain and decided to stop at a location where the river was nearby (the river was not flowing that much). We got out and put our feet in the creek and waded a little. The water was so cold. We came back to town ate supper and listened to a two-man band, one had a banjo and the other had some other instrument that I didn't recognize but they really entertained us a short while before we headed back to the hotel.
If or when we ever come back, this needs to be more than a three day campaign. We're exhausted from all the riding and walking. Here are some pictures from our vacation.
Angle of the bottom to the top
As we were coming down, a neat angle on how steep it was up to the top or vice versa.
On our way to the top
A view close to our hotel off of Airport Rd./Natural Historic Rd. with the space needle and the sky lift in the back ground
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