April 19-24, 2023
Great Smokey Mountains National Park
Laura, Hazel and I planned a quick getaway to the Smokies since we've never been before and wanted to experience a new park. After some issues with changed flights and getting a rental car, we were off from Charlotte and headed toward our first two nights of camping at Deep Creek campground.
After stopping for groceries and a second round of french fries (Justin ate Hazel's while she was sleeping, which didn't go over well), we got to the campground and set up our tent for the evening.
Hazel helped collect wood and we had a fire with roasted brats for dinner.
We decided to do a long hike our first day and made a loop encompassing the Juney Whank falls loop, followed by the Deep Creek trail up to the Martins Gap trail. We continued on the Mountains to Sea trail and eventually cut back taking the Sunkota Ridge trail down past Indian Creek and Tom Branch waterfalls. We spent the evening playing in the water and having another fire.
We stayed in Deep Creek campground again that night and packed up early the following morning. We drove to a new area of the park. Along with sightseeing and hiking up to the Alum Cave Bluffs and Arch Rock, we visited Clingmans Dome and hiked a short portion of the Appalachian Trail back to our car. We camped at Smokemont campground that evening.
The next day was forecasted for rain so we decided to do a short waterfall hike and then continue on to the scenic driving loop. We enjoyed the old buildings and history here.
Our last night we stayed at Elkmont campground and after a quick hike up to Laurel Falls, we drove over to the Cosby area of the park where we did another hike to a waterfall before heading back to Charlotte and heading home the following morning.
We were happy to explore and saw much of the beautiful Smokies on our short vacation. We hope Hazel grows to love the outdoors as she handles it great and really likes the hiking and camping!
