This has got to be one of my favorite pics of the whole trip... We stopped at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and Mountain Farm Museum. Tommie was checking it out...
They had several varieties of beautiful flowers growing.
Over 250 families lived in the Smoky Mountains until the 1930s. It was interesting to learn how they lived.
Grandma couldn't listen to the fussing over who got to hold Nikon anymore... so she bought each of the boys their own black bear souvenir.
After the Mountain Farm Museum, we drove to Mingo Falls - the largest falls on the park map at 180 feet. It was beautiful! The photos do not begin to do justice to this waterfall. You climb up a massive staircase and wow... the falls "end" at the top.
Even the "run-off" from the falls were beautiful.
After our visit to Mingo Falls, we did some tourist-y things in Cherokee. It was neat to visit the reservation and to see words written in Cherokee all over.
We had our photos taken with a real-life American Indian. ha, ha Later, we found out that the Cherokee people did not build tee-pees. You certainly couldn't tell that from all of the ones they put out for tourists! While Cherokee was tourist-y, it was not nearly as congested as Gatlinburg. It's definitely the quieter side of the mountain.
We stopped for an afternoon snack at a local homemade ice cream shop. The girls working in the shop were more genuine Native Americans than the guy pictured above! :)
After our snack, we decided to travel on another rustic mountain road. These rustic roads are one-way roads, very windy and on the edge of steep embankments. They are closed in the winter for obvious reasons. We were still on a mission to find a black bear & get good photos of him. So, off we went. Then... a giant thunderstorm hit! So, we found ourselves winding around the mountain on a back road that was slippery and dangerous... in the middle of a storm cloud. It's amazing how a storm cloud seems to envelop you when you are high on a mountain. It was exciting and adventurous for the first 30 or 40 minutes. Then, it became the road that never ends... We probably spent 2 hours driving on this one-way road with no way out but forward. By the time we came back to Cherokee, we decided that we were finished with rustic mountain roads. All of the smart bears were probably in caves somewhere out of the rain...
All of that danger & excitement worked up an appetite... so we ate dinner at a Big Boy in Cherokee.
Our plan was to visit Cherokee for the day, then stop at Morton's Overlook again to view the sunset. We read that it is one of the best locations to get a sunset photo. Remember the storm we just endured? Our sunset plans were foiled by lots of clouds & fog. At least I made good use of my new hoodie that I had just purchased in Cherokee. It was amazing that the temperature would be around 75 or so in Gatlinburg and would dip down to 62 on the mountain. Chilly for July!
Even though our sunset was foiled, we saw some really neat steam rising from the valley. We also took fun pics of the boys "falling" off of the mountain.
Right about the time the sun was supposed to set, it started raining. Here we are... in the van... patiently awaiting the sunset that never came...
Blue & gray were the only sunset colors we got... Although, how can you get a bad picture of a gorgeous mountain?
After our visit to Mingo Falls, we did some tourist-y things in Cherokee. It was neat to visit the reservation and to see words written in Cherokee all over.We had our photos taken with a real-life American Indian. ha, ha Later, we found out that the Cherokee people did not build tee-pees. You certainly couldn't tell that from all of the ones they put out for tourists! While Cherokee was tourist-y, it was not nearly as congested as Gatlinburg. It's definitely the quieter side of the mountain.We stopped for an afternoon snack at a local homemade ice cream shop. The girls working in the shop were more genuine Native Americans than the guy pictured above! :)After our snack, we decided to travel on another rustic mountain road. These rustic roads are one-way roads, very windy and on the edge of steep embankments. They are closed in the winter for obvious reasons. We were still on a mission to find a black bear & get good photos of him. So, off we went. Then... a giant thunderstorm hit! So, we found ourselves winding around the mountain on a back road that was slippery and dangerous... in the middle of a storm cloud. It's amazing how a storm cloud seems to envelop you when you are high on a mountain. It was exciting and adventurous for the first 30 or 40 minutes. Then, it became the road that never ends... We probably spent 2 hours driving on this one-way road with no way out but forward. By the time we came back to Cherokee, we decided that we were finished with rustic mountain roads. All of the smart bears were probably in caves somewhere out of the rain...All of that danger & excitement worked up an appetite... so we ate dinner at a Big Boy in Cherokee.Our plan was to visit Cherokee for the day, then stop at Morton's Overlook again to view the sunset. We read that it is one of the best locations to get a sunset photo. Remember the storm we just endured? Our sunset plans were foiled by lots of clouds & fog. At least I made good use of my new hoodie that I had just purchased in Cherokee. It was amazing that the temperature would be around 75 or so in Gatlinburg and would dip down to 62 on the mountain. Chilly for July!Even though our sunset was foiled, we saw some really neat steam rising from the valley. We also took fun pics of the boys "falling" off of the mountain.Right about the time the sun was supposed to set, it started raining. Here we are... in the van... patiently awaiting the sunset that never came...Blue & gray were the only sunset colors we got... Although, how can you get a bad picture of a gorgeous mountain?
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