The Hike

Yesterday at 10 am we set out for Grotto Falls. It's been a little more than a year since we went last. My very first official post on this blog was some pics my kids had taken at the falls.

To get there, you go to traffic light 8 in Gatlinburg and make a left. You will go down a beautiful meandering drive. The first major attraction to those who prefer scenery without the long hike is Rainbow Falls. It's on your right a little ways up and you can park there and hear the falls from the lot. I was worried that maybe I was wrong and our hike last year had actually been Rainbow Falls and not Grotto Falls, and the drive had been so long from Knoxville, I was concerned that if I passed up this parking lot I was actually missing the hike. It was a one way road and in order to turn around I would have to take it to the end. It's my brain. It doubts me all the time.

So we parked in the second lot and went back to the Rainbow Falls lot. Upon entering the trail, we saw a sign that said "Grotto Falls 3.5". I did a little thinking, and decided we would do it. I needed the exercise badly, because lately I feel like jumping out of my skin all the time and I wanted to wear myself out. I also thought that the kids could do it. And they did impress me. We hadn't had lunch, and we still hiked 7 miles in all, and they whined less than they do at Lowe's.
I loved this tree stump. It made me think of that book Watcher in the Woods. I don't really remember the book, but I know it was eerie and there was a tree in it like this.
This was a doe we followed for a little while. This path was almost deserted. She didn't seem to be too concerned that we were following her. I was a bit concerned that we would run into a bear though.
What a cute little mushroom. I think it looks like a fairy place. About five minutes after this we saw some poop right in the middle of the trail. It looked like pie filling it was so full of berries, and it seemed mighty fresh. It wasn't deer poop, because deer poop is kind of pretty. I know that sounds weird, but it looks like big coffee beans and its shiny. I worried this was bear poop, and hoped this bear didn't have a hankerin' for kid meat. I looked it up on the internet when I got home, and it was actually bear poop. It was much fresher looking than any of the pictures I found online.

We hit the Grotto Falls trail after a 2.5 mile hike on the primitive trail. We hiked another mile to get to the falls. They were gorgeous of course. There were lots of people there.


Josie found lots of salamanders. Every time we go out to the rivers in the Smokies we look for them, but have had no success. We found a larvae once in Norris, but that was it. She found plenty at the falls, and managed to snap a picture of this one. He was about four inches long with a head the size of a hershey's kiss, so he was pretty big.

Walking back along the populated trail, another hiker pointed out bear tracks to us. They didn't really show up in this picture.


We got back to the end of the Grotto trail and decided we would try to get back to our car by traveling on the road. It was smooth. We were very thirsty by this point, and the kids were complaining about the bugs. Josie remarked that they were midges and they had red eyes. I asked her how she could tell on such a tiny bug. She said "When I squoosh them between my eyelids, I take them out and look at them." This was a deer by the road. It was the last picture before my camera ran out of memory, and about that point I wasn't giving a shit about my camera's memory. I was just ready to get home. We'd been hiking for about 5 hours, and we were done.

The deserted trail we had been on originally was just up a small hill from the road, so we climbed up to it to finish our endless hike. About .7 miles from the end of the trail, Jake looks up into the woods and calls to me breathlessly. "The bear! The bear!" It was a small bear about 20 feet away. I felt like it was a bit too close for comfort, but I was also excited to see it. I didn't take a picture, I just wanted to look at him and then get to the car.

It took us about an hour and a half to get home from Gatlinburg due to traffic, and stopping at McDonalds to replenish our calories. I was very proud of my kids. They whined less than me, and if you know how whiny they can get, you have to wonder about how much I was whining. Honestly, not much. And I thought I was going to wheeze at one point, but that was only because a hiker on the Grotto Falls trail passed me and she was wearing some Estee Lauder fragrance that really gets to my respiratory system.

After all of that you would think I would have calmed a bit, but I'm still jumpy today. I don't think I'll go on a hike though.