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The Great Smoky Mountains!

We met another couple at this sign from Texas. They took our picture for us.

Our first encounter with nature is a black bear cub. He was pretty close to the trail.

After hiking for a while, we came to our first waterfall, Laurel Falls.

We climbed down to take more pictures.

Thirsty?

Pictures from the bottom of the waterfall.

On the auto touring trail, we spotted a mother black bear and her three cubs.

Trail scenery

Salamander

Teresa was walking in front of me on this trail and I noticed something poking out on the left. I called out Teresa’s name and she stopped and turned. I probably should’ve not said anything and let her keep walking passed it. Teresa stopped right in the path of a snake making it’s way across.

There were mysterious poop droppings. Or as the kids behind us would say, “poo-berries”.

The “poo-berries” belonged to this group of llamas.

Here’s our second waterfall, Grotto Falls. It’s not as tall as the first one but it was nice.

I debated walking into the waterfall but it was way too cold.

I decided to walk down the stream while Teresa walked on the trail.

Further down the stream was a smaller waterfall.

Picture of the car in nature.

Clingman’s Dome was suppose to be an easy .5 mile paved trail. It definitely was not easy. It was a steep incline to the top and it was really cold. This is the highest point in the park.

Views from atop Clingman’s Dome

The different directional views.

On the way back to the car. We saw an Elk, or a buck, as the redneck put it.

It was a pretty long, eventful day so we ended up heading out to Asheville, NC for the night.