re: Chattanooga/Gatlinburg Trip Report - With Some Pictures

Wednesday was our day in the National Park. We started off at the Sugarlands Visitor Center by buying the booklets for the girls to do the Junior Ranger program ($2.50 each). We then headed to the trailhead for Laurel Falls. It's about 1.3 mile hike to the falls - mostly uphill - elevation climb of about 350 feet. But the trail is basically broken pavement and never really steep. The falls… are amazing… and after a pretty hot hike… had some cool breezes come off the falls. You can't swim in it but you can stick your feet in! And since the walk to the falls was uphill… that meant the walk back was downhill! We then headed to Cades Cove, which was a great driving trek. We made many stops along the Cove Road, at various historical sites and saw some deer. About halfway through the Cove (the Cove Road is about a 13 mile loop) is a visitor center with a working flour mill. We also ate lunch there under a tree (we had packed a picnic lunch). After finishing the Cove, we headed back to the Sugarlands Visitor Center, parked, and then did another trail from there to Cataract Falls - this is a super, super easy hike that is less than a half mile each way. We then went to the center and the kids turned in their Junior Ranger booklets and got inducted as Junior Ranges - pledge, badge, and all! It was really neat.







Wed night we ended up in Pigeon Forge at a place called Mama's Farmhouse - it's a family style restaurant with good home cooking. It was good… not a must-do.