Gatlinburg ... a Practically Unplanned Adventure! June 27 - July 5, 2009 - Page 20 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Great update Christiejay We have one son and always tried to do things with him within his age and interest range. This sounds like a great vacation, you really did alot. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks all! This was a fun day with a lot packed into it. The water class turned out to be good, Joshua didn't really do a lot of complaining about getting in the river like I thought he might. And Mingo Falls has such easy access that it is probably one we will do multiple times.
Before we headed back to the resort, I wanted to spend a little time in Cherokee, so we drove over to the Saunooke Village shopping area. We looked around in some of the shops for a while. I picked out a T-shirt and Joshua bought a couple of toys - I remember him getting a bag of marbles with a wolf on them and a toy train, and it seems like he also picked out a truck of some sort although I can't remember now exactly what it was. We stopped at the ice cream shop for a snack, then made our way across the road and walked through a few more shops, made the loop back around to the truck, and made one final stop at the Christmas store. I was disappointed not to find anything there, but since we bought several ornaments in Pigeon Forge last night I got over it pretty quick.
That was about all the walking around we wanted to do, although one of these years we will spend the whole day here and check out the Indian Village and the Outdoor Drama. We headed back through the Park toward our resort, and I snapped a few pictures along the way. They didn't turn out as nicely through the truck windshield as well as I could see them with my eyes. I was trying to capture the cloudy sky with the sun rays peeking through, and the way the green trees "popped" against the gray sky.
And on the way back down the mountain I tried one last time to get a decent shot of the rockslide area.
Once back at the room we had to make a decision about supper. This decision ended up being based on our plans for tomorrow. Originally we were going to go to Ober Gatlinburg for the whole day, and the day after that Jay was going to hike Mt. LeConte. However, that day's weather called for rain, so Jay was thinking he better do his hike tomorrow instead. This is a pretty strenuous hike and he wanted to carb-load, so tonight ended up being our spaghetti night!
After eating I called to speak to my parents and filled them in on what we had been doing, and that Jay was going to make his big hike tomorrow. Joshua played with his new toys and I tried to do a little organizing of all the brochures and papers we had been collecting throughout the trip. After a while we started getting ready for bed, and I did some reading as usual, and then it was lights out!
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Today we got up and got moving fairly early, as Jay had his big hike planned and didn't want to be too late getting started for that. I forget what we ate, but we ate in the room. Then we started up the mountain to the trailhead. There are several trails going to Mt. LeConte, but Jay had decided to begin on the Alum Cave Bluff trail and come down the Rainbow Falls trail. The Alum Cave Bluff trailhead is about halfway up the mountain on the main road. The trail to the bluff is rated moderate, and for a while Joshua and I had planned to go that far with Jay, but I changed my mind about that last night. Jay said he didn't mind if we went to Ober Gatlinburg without him, so we decided to do that instead. I was excited to find a few parking places left at the trailhead when we arrived - every time we've driven past it before, the parking lots were full and people were even parking out on the road.
We walked with Jay over to the official beginning of the trail, where I made him pose for some documentary pictures.
Notice how this sign says to hear good hiking shoes?
Now check out what Jay chose to wear:
Yes, regular tennis shoes! He says he feels like he can get a better grip on the trail with them.
Then he set off and Joshua and I were on our own! Something we've never done before in the Smokies. It felt weird! I'm familiar with the area but it still felt very strange to be in the driver's seat. Now, I had mentioned that we were going to go up to Ober Gatlinburg, but I knew that they wouldn't be open yet, so we needed something else to do for an hour or so. The first thing we did was stop on our way back down the mountain to walk on the Sugarlands Valley Trail. It is very close to the park boundary, flat, paved, and short. A perfect trail! When I say paved, this trail is actually a nice, wide sidewalk through the woods, the only wheelchair-accessible trail in the park. They used to have a lot of interpretive signs along the trail, but many were missing. Hopefully they are being refurbished and will be returned soon. There were a few other people out today, but not to the point of being crowded. Here's our pictures.
I love this picture. It's so dark in there, that it actually looks foreboding! The trail to nowhere!
Before the park was established, people had summer homes here. Here's Joshua exploring the remnants of one home's chimney:
And another, which was more intact:
A small portion of the trail goes alongside the river.
The trail also crosses through an old stone wall fence:
My hiking book mentioned that a bear walked through the wet cement at some point along the trail, so I had been looking for it. I finally found it and tried to take pictures of Joshua's hand and foot next to the bear's, but the bear prints didn't show up very well in the pictures.
Another view of the stone wall fence, from the other side of the trail loop (heading back to the truck)
After our walk we stopped at the Sugarlands Visitor Center so I could pick up a few more things. I got Jay a book about Mt. LeConte, since he was finally getting to hike it this time, an oval-shaped magnet for my car with "GSM" on it, a set of View-Master reels for Joshua, a trail patch for Joshua for the Porter's Creek Trail we walked a couple of days ago, and some hiking stick medallions for Jay for today's hike: Mt. LeConte, Alum Cave, Rainbow Falls, and one he requested with a bear on it.
Purchases stored and restrooms visited, we made our way into town. I was hoping to get a free parking space along River Road, but all of those were taken, so I decided just to park in the official Ober Gatlinburg parking lot. When we arrived we were told that the tram was not currently operating and they weren't sure how much longer until it would be, but we decided to go ahead and pay to park there anyway, since we had several hours available.
While we were still in the parking lot, we applied our sunscreen. I've discovered the hard way that the sun is especially bright on top of that mountain! And there's not much shade available. Once slathered up we walked over to the tram station. We could see the tram operating, but knew it wasn't open to the public yet, as there was a man on the ladder on top of the tram as it was moving along the cable! Sure enough, they weren't selling tickets yet, so we decided to try to find something for a snack. I hadn't brought anything in my bag since I figured we could pick something up pretty easily. I just hadn't planned on being stuck on the Parkway for a while waiting on the tram!
The tram station has some stores, and I thought we could find a snack there, but it was just candy, so we went outside and walked down the Parkway to see what else we could find. Just about a block away was the Parkway Pharmacy so I decided on stopping in there. We bought a bag of Chex Mix snack mix, and a Cherry Coke to share, and sat on the bench in front of their store while we ate. We watched the traffic and the people and had a good break.
I decided to see if the tram was operating, so we walked back over to the station. Thankfully, they were open now so we got our tickets and went to get in line. We had a nice ride up, and the first thing we did when we arrived at the upper station was to go out to their parking lot and check out the view.
Notice the clouds? I'm thinking Jay won't have much of a view on top of Mt. LeConte today! I was wondering if it was raining over that way.
The gray in the midst of the green is condos.
The ski lift to the scenic overlook area, as seen from the parking lot.
And one last look back across the parking lot at the view.
Now it was time to have some fun! So we went in and bought our wristbands. This allows you to do pretty much everything for just one price, so if you're staying for more than a couple of hours it's a really good deal.
Once we had our wristbands on we went out back to figure out what we would do first. Joshua and I both wanted to start with the alpine slide. They won't let you take any bags with you, so I took a few pictures of the area before I rented a locker to put my camera and backpack in.
The two water slides, and the loading area for the chair lift
Looking up the chair lift - the blue one is how they get the sleds up to the alpine slide track - you ride up the red lift and get off halfway for the alpine slide.
A long shot of the whole area, from the other side
Just over that rise is where the alpine slide starts
The red chair lift continues up the mountain to a scenic overlook area. A bluegrass band also plays throughout the day.
A snowplow - they do have skiing in the winter, although they have to make most of their own snow.
It's hard to remember everything we did, but here's my best recollection: Alpine slide, water slide, alpine slide, water slide. This second time Joshua chose the steep slide but I took the milder one again. Maybe the alpine slide a third time. Then I talked Joshua into the tunnel water slide before we went inside for a break. Once inside we played their mini golf course for the first time. It was pretty funny. It's up on the third floor in its own little room. It consists of wooden platforms scattered throughout the room. Each platform has a green on it and some sort of obstacle. Which is what a regular mini golf course is. I guess what amused me about this one is the way each one was up on a platform. One good thing about that is that it makes the golf course portable, right? We started our round of golf at a good time, as just behind us a large group started and it got really crowded. We finished up (neither one of us did too well) and headed back downstairs.
I had planned for us to eat lunch up here, but because of our big bag of snack mix down on the parkway we weren't really hungry. I discovered that they no longer have their go-karts. We looked over to where the track used to be, and they have turned it into a hill for snow tubing. Sounds like fun! After our indoors break we went back outside. I talked Joshua into riding the chair lift all the way up the mountain once, to see the view. He wasn't real excited about that! So after we came back down, we rode the alpine slide a couple more times and he was happy again. It was starting to get so crowded, though, that there was a pretty long wait each time. Plus, we needed to pick Jay up after his hike, so I gathered my bag from the locker and we started to head out. I took this picture of the tunnel water slide as we passed by:
Notice the little side platform at the top? This used to be a bungee jump tower.
This sign was hanging above the snack bar and showed all the ski trails
Joshua really wasn't wanting to leave so I told him he could play in the fun house. He wanted me to go with him - it is pirate themed, and for some reason he was a little spooked by it. But after that first time, he went back through by himself. His favorite part was the punching bag pirates on the upper deck.
If you look really closely between the bars on these next two pictures you can see Joshua punching the pirate:
Now since we hadn't had lunch we were starting to get a little hungry, so I made a wonderful mommy decision and let Joshua choose a flavor of fudge for us to have for a lunch/snack. I can't remember what flavor he picked, but he enjoyed it so much that he still talks about it! We sat down on a bench and ate a little bit, then packed up the rest to take with us. Before leaving I went to look around in the gift shop. I picked out a few postcards and a couple of scrapbook kits - one was for my mom. And finally it was time to leave! We went to get in line for the tram back down the mountain. The line was so long we had to wait for a second tram. That made me nervous because I didn't want Jay to be waiting for us for a long time at the bottom of the trail. But nothing I could do about it, right? Pictures from the ride down:
Looking over into the bear habitat as we left the station. Noticed this one guy peering into the door!
And a couple of quick shots back into the ride/slopes area:
See the house with the V-shaped roof? Here's the story the tram operator told us about it. I don't know if it's true, or if the guy made it up to amuse himself by duping the tourists: This is called Delta House. It is owned by Delta Airlines. They use it from time to time. The roof is made from airplane wings. Believe it or not ...
As you can tell, I was taken with this view.
We were at the back of the tram, so as the other car passed us I turned around and took a picture of it going up. It was too crowded in the front of our tram to get a picture of it coming up towards us.
Once back at the lower station we walked to the truck and started driving out to pick up Jay. He had taken the Rainbow Falls trail down for a change of scenery, which meant we had to go through town and up toward Roaring Fork Road. I had forgotten to take traffic into account!
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Great updates, Christie. Ober Gatlinburg looked like a lot of fun. And the trail looked wonderful. Stream Splashers seemed like fun. And Mingo Falls = lovely! (Can you tell I was a little behind )
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Great updates! I think I went on that tram once. I love alpine slides. I just hate when I get stuck behind slow-pokes! I hope that didn't happen to you.
Hi everybody! Sorry I missed last Sunday's updating, we were at my parents' house so I didn't get the chance to log on. Today's updates may be a little short since I'm getting a late start this afternoon, but I wanted to at least do one update to keep the report going.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhinohunter
Ober Gatlinberg looks like a really fun place. Your pix are really nice.
Thanks! Ober is one of the places we try to go to every time we are in Gatlinburg. Some of the museums are a one-time-only thing, but because of the variety of activities here we like to make repeat visits.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Katara81
Great updates! Looks like you had a fun day at Ober! DH got me on that tram once......it was terrifying! LOL
That tram can definitely have its scary moments. Especially when you go over a tower and start to swing. My mom refuses to ride!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
What great pictures Christie! Looks like a fun time at Ober Gatlinburg!
We did have fun, even if it was just the two of us. My original plan called for us to go back the next day just to try the ice skating. It would have been the perfect opportunity for Joshua to work on a Cub Scout belt loop. But there wasn't time to squeeze in a skating session this day, and we never made it back. Which is okay, he probably needs to work on roller skating more first before he tries ice skating - something to give him a little confidence! He should still be in Cub Scouts the next time we go back, so we may try it then.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
What great updates - and more wonderful photos.
Thanks Cheryl!
Quote:
Originally Posted by PrincessSharon
Great updates, Christie. Ober Gatlinburg looked like a lot of fun. And the trail looked wonderful. Stream Splashers seemed like fun. And Mingo Falls = lovely! (Can you tell I was a little behind )
Ha-ha! I can't talk about anybody being behind, considering how long I've let this trip report drag out. Just glad you're still here!
Quote:
Originally Posted by pamcarey
Great updates! I think I went on that tram once. I love alpine slides. I just hate when I get stuck behind slow-pokes! I hope that didn't happen to you.
Will we get to see any pictures from Jay's hike?
No, we never got behind any slow-pokes on the slide this time. I had thought that we might be the slow-pokes with Joshua trying to operate the sled by himself for the first time (last time we were here he rode with one of us). In fact, I was surprised at how fast Joshua was going! He beat me to the bottom every time. Fast enough to make me a little nervous about him going around the corners, and I think actually there were a couple of times that the employees had to remind him to slow down in the curves. Pictures from Jay's hike are coming up!
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The waterfall looks stunning and I love how much there was to do at the visitor centre.
Jay said he didn't mind if we went to Ober Gatlinburg without him, so we decided to do that instead. I was excited to find a few parking places left at the trailhead when we arrived - every time we've driven past it before, the parking lots were full and people were even parking out on the road.
I'm familiar with the area but it still felt very strange to be in the driver's seat. Now, I had mentioned that we were going to go up to Ober Gatlinburg, but I knew that they wouldn't be open yet, so we needed something else to do for an hour or so. The first thing we did was stop on our way back down the mountain to walk on the Sugarlands Valley Trail. It is very close to the park boundary, flat, paved, and short. A perfect trail! 
They used to have a lot of interpretive signs along the trail, but many were missing. 
Hopefully they are being refurbished and will be returned soon. There were a few other people out today, but not to the point of being crowded. Here's our pictures.
Sure enough, they weren't selling tickets yet, so we decided to try to find something for a snack. I hadn't brought anything in my bag since I figured we could pick something up pretty easily. I just hadn't planned on being stuck on the Parkway for a while waiting on the tram! 
DH got me on that tram once......it was terrifying! LOL
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