Some highlights:
Wednesday:
Laurel Falls hike. This is a popular day hike on a paved trail to these falls. It was way too crowded for my taste, but the falls were okay, and climbing down below the falls allowed us to get away from the crowds a little bit. I can't imagine being here in the summer time.
Chimney Tops Picnic Area. This is a great little place with an awesome river view and massive boulders to climb on.
Wednesday ended with a Billards Tournament finally won by SD and Aunt Bee after Uncle RS and JA had trouble keeping the 8 ball out of the pockets.
Thursday:
Roaring River Auto Tour-excellent sight seeing, way better than Cades Cove for scenery (but no bears.)
Stop 1 for us was Ogle's Place. This was an awesome little nature trail on the old farmland of Mr. Ogle. Why anyone would choose to farm here is beyond me, but as a summer cabin, the place would be second to none. The bouldering was excellent as well, with Uncle RS pioneering the straight up the face route.
Stop 2 was Grotto Falls.
Grotto Falls-this is a beautiful family hike, (which could be continued into a really advanced backpacking trip by continuing on to the top of Mt. LeConte). Moss covered rocks everywhere, nice uphill climb next to a river most of the way, and the falls area is spectacular. JP and I will definitely want to use this as an awesome descent from Mt. LeConte after ascending from the Rainbow Falls side. ME and I took it very slow, which was good because JA started out really whiny but once she got ahead and didn't have a parent to complain to, she really started to enjoy it. The falls has a bit of a grotto behind it, and really is a series of falls that were just really cool. Because it took ME and I so long to get there, everyone else was ready to go once we arrived, but we still got to do a little playing around the falls. It started to rain as we were descending and we made it back to the parking lot just as it started to pour.
Thursday night finished off with some March Madness.
