My Smokey mountain/Mammoth cave trip!

[Tuckins1]

Well, we just got back from a 1 week trip down to Tennessee/Kentucky. We had a blast!! Here are a bunch of pics...

We did a bunch of hikes... This is a view from one of them (I don''t remember which one)

 

[Tuckins1]

Beautiful streams and rivers...

 

[Tuckins1]

This is from the hike up to "Chimney Tops"... What a hike that was!

 

[Tuckins1]

More Chimney tops...

 

[Tuckins1]

Up at the top we had to climb up the rock face of the mountain to get to the summit... It was scary!! I didn''t go all the way up because I was afraid that I wouldn''t be able to get down!! (That''s not us in the pic!)

 

[Tuckins1]

This is the view from our room at the lodge we stayed at... It was AWESOME!!!

 

[Tuckins1]

More from the lodge...

 

[Ara Ann]

Thanks for posting your beautiful pics! I wanted to go to TN this summer, I was there in the early Fall (the Smokey Mtn. area), but we have made other plans for vacation...but it is a beautiful area and absolutely breathtaking in person! Sounds like you had a great time!

 

[Tuckins1]

Here is a pic of the "frozen Niagara" cave at Mammoth Caves in Kentucky.

 

[Dreamgirl]

Looks like a splendid time!

 

[Tuckins1]

Another Niagara...

 

[Tuckins1]

Last one for now... Mammoth caves is really cool! Anyone who hasn''t been there should really try to get out there at least once. It''s the longest/largest system of caves in the world!!

 

[monarch64]

Great pics, Tuckins! I''m contemplating going down to TN with friends next weekend...no mountains and no caves for me, though, just boating.

 

[Bia]

I''ve always wanted to visit the Smokies. Awesome pictures!

 

[Lauren8211]

My parents took me down to Mammoth Cave when I was a kid. It was so fun!

The pictures are gorgeous, glad you had a great time!!

 

[Skippy123]

Those caves are so cool and the views of the smokey mountains are gorgeous. Looks like a fabulous trip; thanks for sharing! Out here in NM we have the Carlsbad caverns; come visit us sometime! hehe

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Very cool! I''d love to go exploring in those caves!

 

[Linda W]

Beautiful pictures!!!!

 

[Tuckins1]

Thanks all! It is gorgeous down there... We stayed in Pigeon Forge first- I wouldn't recommend it unless you just want a cheap place to stay while exploring the smokies. Gatlinberg is a much nicer place to stay, it has lots of cool shops and things to do- like Hillbilly Golf!

 

[LadyBlue]

I love the Smokey Montain!!! The pics are great, I can not wait to go back there =P

 

[partgypsy]

What a treat! I''m going to put that in my memory banks for a someday place for a family vacation. I love caves; not hard core spelunking but visiting the ones lit up with different colored lights with each "room" having a different name.

 

[April20]

Your pictures are beautiful! It looks like you had a great time. What tour did you do at Mammoth? I grew up near there and did a ton of field trips there growing up and did the "Wild Cave" tour about nine years ago. It''s a fantastic cave site- I never get tired of going there.

I''m going to tell something on myself here that I have tried to bury deeeeeep into the recesses of my mind, but your pics of the chimney tops in the Smoky Mntn''s brought it forward and it won''t go back. I am going to apologize now for the thread jack.

My mom and step-dad used to be big hikers. They would take these long hiking trips with friends. Once my younger brother and sister came along, that got scaled back, but we''d still do these occasional family trips. My siblings were in backpacks (too little to hike) and I was about 10, trugging up the mountain toward the chimney tops and I DID NOT want to be there. I wanted to be doing ANYTHING else. So what did my parent decide to do with a whining 10 year old? Well, LIE to me, of course. What else could they do? They told me there was a BOWLING ALLEY at the top of the mountain. AND I BELIEVED THEM. You can only imagine what happened when we got to the top and there I was looking for the bowling alley and asking other hikers where it was. They looked at me like I was nuts and my parents like they wondered what kind of child I was. I have pretty much never lived that down.

Okay, thread jack over.

 

[April20]

Date: 6/26/2009 9:22:33 PM
Author: Tuckins1
Thanks all! It is gorgeous down there... We stayed in Pigeon Forge first- I wouldn''t recommend it unless you just want a cheap place to stay while exploring the smokies. Gatlinberg is a much nicer place to stay, it has lots of cool shops and things to do- like Hillbilly Golf!

I refer to Pigeon Forge as "Reno" and Gatlinburg as "Vegas". Pigeon Forge is tons better than it was in the 80s, but Gatlinburg is still better.

 

[Tuckins1]

Date: 6/27/2009 7:44:14 PM
Author: April20
Your pictures are beautiful! It looks like you had a great time. What tour did you do at Mammoth? I grew up near there and did a ton of field trips there growing up and did the ''Wild Cave'' tour about nine years ago. It''s a fantastic cave site- I never get tired of going there.


I''m going to tell something on myself here that I have tried to bury deeeeeep into the recesses of my mind, but your pics of the chimney tops in the Smoky Mntn''s brought it forward and it won''t go back. I am going to apologize now for the thread jack.


My mom and step-dad used to be big hikers. They would take these long hiking trips with friends. Once my younger brother and sister came along, that got scaled back, but we''d still do these occasional family trips. My siblings were in backpacks (too little to hike) and I was about 10, trugging up the mountain toward the chimney tops and I DID NOT want to be there. I wanted to be doing ANYTHING else. So what did my parent decide to do with a whining 10 year old? Well, LIE to me, of course. What else could they do? They told me there was a BOWLING ALLEY at the top of the mountain. AND I BELIEVED THEM. You can only imagine what happened when we got to the top and there I was looking for the bowling alley and asking other hikers where it was. They looked at me like I was nuts and my parents like they wondered what kind of child I was. I have pretty much never lived that down.


Okay, thread jack over.

We did the Grand avenue tour... It''s the longest and most strenuous hike you can do besides the Wild Cave tour. I was definitely not ready to crawl for miles through tiny passageways, in the dirt and dark!! That''s way too hard core for me.

Chimney tops was a challenging hike. In 1 mile you go up about 1000 feet, so it''s a push!

 

[April20]

Date: 6/27/2009 10:18:26 PM
Author: Tuckins1


We did the Grand avenue tour... It''s the longest and most strenuous hike you can do besides the Wild Cave tour. I was definitely not ready to crawl for miles through tiny passageways, in the dirt and dark!! That''s way too hard core for me.

Chimney tops was a challenging hike. In 1 mile you go up about 1000 feet, so it''s a push!

I don''t think I could do the Wild Cave tour now if I wanted to. I was about 23 when I did it and much more apt to go, "Yeah, let me crawl thru miles and miles of dirt on my hands and knees! Sounds fab!". Seriously, we were walking down a path and the guide stopped and says, okay, here''s our turn. It was a hole near the floor. We spent hours crawling- sometimes army crawling. My neck was sore for days and my knees were really swollen from all the time I spent on them. It was a lot of fun though- I have great memories from it.

I don''t think DH has ever been. He couldn''t do the Wild Cave tour if he wanted- his shoulder measurement is too big to fit thru the tight spots. I''m going to stick the Grand Avenue on our list though and take that one.

 

[Tuckins1]

Date: 6/28/2009 8:39:54 AM
Author: April20

Date: 6/27/2009 10:18:26 PM

Author: Tuckins1



We did the Grand avenue tour... It''s the longest and most strenuous hike you can do besides the Wild Cave tour. I was definitely not ready to crawl for miles through tiny passageways, in the dirt and dark!! That''s way too hard core for me.


Chimney tops was a challenging hike. In 1 mile you go up about 1000 feet, so it''s a push!

I don''t think I could do the Wild Cave tour now if I wanted to. I was about 23 when I did it and much more apt to go, ''Yeah, let me crawl thru miles and miles of dirt on my hands and knees! Sounds fab!''. Seriously, we were walking down a path and the guide stopped and says, okay, here''s our turn. It was a hole near the floor. We spent hours crawling- sometimes army crawling. My neck was sore for days and my knees were really swollen from all the time I spent on them. It was a lot of fun though- I have great memories from it.


I don''t think DH has ever been. He couldn''t do the Wild Cave tour if he wanted- his shoulder measurement is too big to fit thru the tight spots. I''m going to stick the Grand Avenue on our list though and take that one.

Props to you for doing the wild cave!! I''m too afraid of the dark and tight spaces- seriously... I freak out when I get stuck trying to take off a tight shirt!!

You will love the grand avenue tour. It''s pretty cool.

 

[whitby_2773]

gorgeous photos, tuckins

glad you had a wonderful time in ''the great outdoors''

 

[partgypsy]

aprilbaby that is a hilarious anecdote. I have memories of my mom telling me some whoppers just to get us kids to stop asking her questions. I feel lucky because when I was a kid and we were driving up Wisconsin for a summer trip, my parents were always game to stop at some dubious but entertaining tourist trap. I remember one of the places we stayed at (dew drop inn) did have a bowling alley in it (either 1 or 2 lanes).