We spent our New Year’s in the Great Smoky Mountains traveling to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. I’ve always been more of a beach person than mountain man, but it was a great time with wonderful scenery.
Our first night was in Pigeon Forge consumed mostly with games for the kids, but we did get in my first visit to the “Christmas Place,” which was by far one of the highlights of the trip.
The incredibly expansive store has everything Christmas that can be had and I’m always interested in expanding my late wife Lisa’s large collection of Santa ornaments I display each year on a white Christmas tree. One day they will be passed down to the younger generations to enjoy.
On the drive up we stopped at one of my all-time favorite places – Rock City. It was a first for my step-sons and they seemed to enjoy the marvelous walk through the massive rocks and the glorious views as much as I did.
We stayed in the Townsend area of the mountains, what they like to call the peaceful side of the Smoky Mountains. Most of our time was spent in the vehicle making loops through Cade’s Cove for the boys to spot wildlife – one of their favorite past times, especially Grayer.
Each trip through we were blessed to close encounters with large bucks, lots of does, flocks of turkeys, and even a hopping fox.
We made the trip around the top of the mountains into North Carolina which was heavily dusted with snow that made the scenes at that elevation even prettier. We continued around toward Cherokee, North Carolina to see the elk in that area.
That herd, based on my reading, has grown upwards of 200 since they re-introduced the elk to that side of the Smokies some 20 years ago. We spotted a few dozen, including a couple of large bulls that made Grayer’s day.
We took in several hikes to see giant waterfalls and beautiful scenes from rocky cliffs.
We enjoyed the always congested strip of Gatlinburg. I remarked to Kayla my last trip through Gatlinburg was a motorcycle trip with a bunch of guys from Bruce and we didn’t stop anymore than the traffic forced us. We stayed on our Harleys until we were clear.
We took in a few stores, enjoyed two good meals there and even ventured on to one of the mountain coasters that was so much fun Cohen and I insisted we go twice.
We concluded our visit with one last trip through Cade’s Cove and a visit to the “Bigfoot” store where I purchased some very comfortable “Bigfoot” socks.
We made it back home, got caught up at The Journal, and woke up Monday morning to 20 degree temperatures and of course – snow on the ground. That made me look forward to springtime.