SE Roadtrip Day 11: Smoky Mountains, TN 2012

The Smoky Mountains were a pleasantly uneventful stop on our trip. In the morning, Kevin went a nice size hike by himself and spotted a baby bear. Luckily the mom didn't cross his path.  In the afternoon, we drove up to the Clingman's Dome Trail together, and hiked up a short half-mile to Clingman's Dome.  The whole way up we were wondering why we thought it was a good idea to bring a baby in a stroller up a hiking trail, but we felt better when we saw other babies in special hiking backpacks and what not.  At the top, we took some family photos.  And then walk-jogged half a mile back down. Easy-peezy.

At the top of Clingman's Dome

Clingman's Dome

View straight down of the end of the Clingman's Dome Trail

View straight down from Clingman's Dome of the woods

Pushing James back down

We stayed in Gatlinsburg, TN which was awful, less because of it's ridiculous tourist-cheesiness, and more because they had no free parking anywhere. That made it impossible to do simple things like pick up lunch.  And we got stuck in construction traffic driving to the trail and leaving it, but James was more or less a trooper for that.  James hated the Gatlinburg lunch debacle as much as we did though. I had to change his diaper in the car, on my lap, a trick I learned from Audra when I was visiting her! All in all though, a fairly easy stop on the road.