Smoky Mountains National Park

The boys and I said goodbye to the mountain rental house and drove to Smoky Mountains National Park.  We took a "wrong" turn while Mom was on the phone and ended up on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  How beautiful!   Ninety-minutes of winding roads with spectacular views of the Smoky Mountains!  Amazingly, the parkway was pretty quiet.

We entered the national park from the southern entrance which is not the "main" entrance. The visitor center was quiet, and we enjoyed a nice visit to the pioneer village.  When the park was established in the 1920's various log homes were moved to the visitor center for tourists to appreciate. It was a nice view into pioneer life.  Henry was definitely not interested in imagining life in the one-room homes!  Ha.

Sadly, the northern end of the park was so congested by tourists!!  The two trailheads we planned to visit were full of cars, and it was impossible to even turn left because of the bumper-to-bumper traffic. So very sad.  I missed my desired picture in front of the "official" national park signage because it would have probably taken 30 minutes to turn around.  Yuck.  So glad we visited the southern, quieter park entrance at the beginning.

My sweet boys visited every hotel exercise room with me after a long day of driving.  Thank goodness there are three treadmills at every Hampton Inn!  We walked after every long day of driving!

Of course, a visit to the hotel swimming pool was also a requirement for them!!