The Great Smoky Mountains National Park - September 3 to 5, 2011

Daddy had a 3 day vacation, 5^th (Monday) being Labor Day! Daddy and I had been thinking to go somewhere/visit for this long weekend.

I had been browsing in the Internet to find some good places around here. We finally decided to go to the Great Smoky Mountains.

The Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a division of the larger Appalachian Mountain chain. This national park was created as a national treasure to preserve the environment (which was destroyed by large scale logging) and is about 800 million acres. This national park has about 1600 bears and frequented by 7 million visitors each year. The border between Tennessee and North Carolina runs northeast to southwest through the centerline of the park.

We started on a long drive to Knoxville, a city in Tennessee. It was my first trip in Daddy's car, a really long way!! As we started early in the morning on 3^rd (Saturday), it was a pleasant journey. Some stretches where covered by green trees on both sides of the highway running for several hundred miles and on a mountainous terrain. It’s about 225miles far and took around 4 hours’ drive to reach Knoxville, a city in Tennessee around 11:30 am. Then from there we went a further 1 hour drive to the Gatlinburg, the main gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We went to the Visitor's center and collected few maps, got info about the attractions and directions etc. We took few trolley (bus) trips through the mountain ranges. There were many trails for walking and cycling through the mountain ranges and forest. We went for a hike through the mountains, a part called Sugarland. This was an easy and quiet short hike. We walked up the mountains for a hike of 2.7 miles. There was a waterfall at the end of this walking trail called the Laurels Falls. We also visited Riley’s Aquarium. This was all on Saturday.

Stayed the night at a motel nearby in a place called Pigeon Forge and the next day morning, started our trip to Clingmans Dome, We drove through the mountain ranges for 23 miles, a scenic drive and then walked up the dome, a curved pathway to reach the highest point of the ranges. From the top we could see a 360 degree view of the mountainous terrain. This is a view of the North Carolina side of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  In the distance you can see the river which runs through Bryson City, North Carolina.  Clingmans Dome is located in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  At 6,643 feet, Clingmans Dome is Great Smoky Mountains National Park's highest point.  Clingmans Dome Trail provides access to the Appalachian Trail and Mountains-To-Sea Trail.

Out of the national park, on the way back near Sevierville, we went for a scenic aerial travel in a helicopter! We flew over a lake, the Douglas Lake. I sat beside the pilot, it was a thrilling experience.

The whole trip was really awesome. Enjoyed!