Smoky Mountains National Park

The great Smoky Mountains. Those layers of greens and blues. Endless hues of turquoise and teal. So different from the jagged, rocky peaks of the Cascades near us.
We landed in Atlanta on Saturday, stopped for supplies, and headed to our campground. We stayed at Enota Mountain Retreat in Georgia where we were welcomed by this sign:

It was a quiet campsite on the edge of a river - the rushing water lulled us to sleep. The next day we visited Brasstown Bald, the highest point of Georgia.

We also visited the highest point of South Carolina, Sassafrass Mountain:

Aaaaaand we visited Mount Mitchell, the highpoint of North Carolina. Three highpoints in one day!

We camped at Mount Mitchell that night - it was a pretty campsite, but it was cold up on the mountain!

The next day we drove into the Smoky Mountains National Park. We drove the Blue Ridge Parkway which is so beautiful and has many lookout points with great views. We did a few hikes in the park - the first hike was the Chimney Tops trail which leads up to this:

Kyle climbed it and said view was spectacular. At the bottom of the trail was a waterfall where we took a break and dipped our feet in the cold water!

On our last day in the park, we hiked nearly 10 miles. We did the Charlies Bunion trail as well as some other side-trails. These views!

At the end of this day we headed to Tennessee to meet my whole family for a family reunion in honor of my grandparents' 80th birthdays! I only took a few photos, but here are some snippets of our time there.

This infamous bear only paid us one visit while we were staying at the lodge even though we were warned that he would probably pop up on our porch while we ate dinner.

The views from our lodge were quaint and picturesque. I woke up early every day and hung out on the porch. The morning this photo was taken was dark, foggy, and wet.