This holiday weekend we loaded up and went camping in the Smokies... we stayed at the Smokey Bear Campground not far from Gatlinburg... It was lots of fun.. .we found some areas that we had never explored before... which is always fun for us...
We went to one of the National Park campgrounds looking at sites for future camping trips.. this one is located in Cosby, Tn next to the NC border.. It was very rustic, no showers, or electricity for those of you who like modern conveniences... But the beauty was breathtaking... We managed to get in a little school over the weekend also with some nature study... While we were out, DS noticed several groups of butterflies (25 or more in a group) sitting on some rocks in the area... we're not sure why they were doing this, but it was sure unusual for us to be able to see such large groups of butterflies in the wild.. It was certainly beautiful...
On day #2 the boys decided to go and play a round of golf at a beautiful course in the mountains... DD and I decided to get in some shopping and went and had a pedicure..a treat for both of us, since I rarely ever have one and she had never had one and then we topped off our day with some ice cream from the Marble Slab... YUMMY!!
On our last day of camping, we went down into Gatlinburg and played tourist.. There's something about the smell and the sights, it's almost like being at the fair and of course, you are tempted by all the wonderful goodies for sale... we managed a stop at Ben& Jerrys for ice cream and then sampled our way up and down the streets at the fudge vendors and eventually had some popcorn and sodas at the KarmelKorn Factory... Then we stopped at a place called the "Pepper Palace" where DH decided to be ina "horseradish" tasting contest... It wasn't the "prepared" kind you buy at the stores, but the real just below the FDA limit for heat kind of stuff... It was very amusing to see his eyes when he put that bite into his mouth... and even more amusing to watch the beads of sweat pop out... but the sample of apple jelly BBQ that I had was mighty fine and I only wanted to cry for more... *LOL*
DD and DS competed in a "YeeHaw" contest at a candy store against some other kids and DS took home the prize (which happened to be a 2ft. gummy snake)... He was thrilled and I was slightly grossed out with it... *LOL*
On our way home, we managed to stop in for breakfast at Carver's Apple Orchard and had an impromptu field trip at the orchard...
We even saw an "apple gourd" which we never knew existed... How cool!!!
I love the Smokies! Another neat campground is in Cataloochee on the NC side. That whole area is really beautiful (and hard to get to). We also saw large groups of butterflies like that the last time we were there.
ReplyDeleteI love Cataloochee... we've never been camping there though... That will have to be added to our list... =D Thanks Kristen for the suggestion!!!
ReplyDeleteCarvers is an awesome place! Their fried apple pies are amazing. The Cades Cove campground is another great spot to camp. We love Cataloochee too. We are planning our annual Fall trip over there :) I love hearing the elk bugle.
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