This post is part of a travel series of our vacation in the Smokey Mountains. To start at the beginning, go HERE! The rest of the post in chronological order are HERE, HERE, and HERE!
On day three of our Smokey Mountain vacation we had planned on hiking the Laurel Falls Trail on our way back from Cades Cove, but it was so insanely busy, we skipped it and planned to hit it the first thing the following morning. As always, we awoke before dawn and we were only the second car in the trail parking lot. A photographer beat us. It was so nice to have the trail mostly to ourselves. We got beautiful tourist-free photos of the falls!
Laurel Falls Trail is popular not only because of the beautiful falls, but because it is short and paved. There are signs everywhere warning you not to bring a stroller on the trail, wheelchairs, etc., but the day before we saw lots of people with strollers. I think it's perfectly fine. I think the concern is that it is a steep trail and if you're not holding tight to the stroller, you could easily lose control. Also, at the end of the trail, near the falls, the nice pavement ends and it gets slightly rocky. But if I was a young mum, I would still bring a stroller on this trail.
One of the best things about getting up and at it so early in the morning, other than having some privacy on the trails, is that you always get to see a beautiful sunrise!
This trail is short, only 2.6 miles round trip, but it is all uphill on the way to the falls, so it is rated moderate in difficulty.
I didn't mind the constant uphill climb because I had such beautiful views to look at. Laurel Falls is a beautiful trail to hike even without the falls, because the views are so spectacular.
Laurel Falls is named for the mountain laurel which is an evergreen shrub that blooms along the trail and at the falls in May. We were there the first of week of April so we must have just missed the blooms.
Hubby found an interesting photo spot along the trail. There was water coming out of this rocky area.
We did have a chuckle at the "Danger" signage. My husband and I are avid hikers and we have been on some seriously dangerous trails in our adventures, and this was not one trail I would consider dangerous. However, Smokey Mountain National Park is a park that really attracts a lot of families. We saw so many little kids on the trails, which we usually don't see when we travel, so maybe the signage was for them. It does say on the park website to "Closely supervise children at all times".
Although we never saw any mountain laurel blooming while we were there, we did see this pretty tree covered in white blooms behind me.
Laurel Falls for me was the prettiest waterfall in the park. It is 80 feet tall, and a unique aspect to this falls is that a bridge goes right through the center of it allowing you to get so close to the upper falls and then be above the second falls. I just loved it!
My husband hiked on a bit further past the end of the trail to get this picture. Here you can see both the upper and lower falls with the bridge in the center.
The hike back down the Laurel Falls Trail was spectacular, for now the sun had fully risen.
During the entire week we were in the Smokies we kept trying to stop at the Visitor's Center. It's usually a good idea to go to the Visitor Center the first day of your trip, but every time we tried it was so insanely busy we couldn't even get IN the parking lot. But now that we were out and about early, I thought, "Here's our chance! Let's stop at the Visitor Center!" And guess what? They were closed! They didn't open till 9:00 am. I tell you, I loved the Smokies but I was constantly frustrated. Every blog post or website you read says "Get up early to beat the crowds!" but then it seemed nothing opened early enough to beat the crowds! Most restaurants in town didn't serve breakfast until 8:00, only two restaurants opened at 7:00. We would have needed to eat by 6:00 am at the latest to hit the trails on time, so we ended up having breakfast in our room every day. Cades Cove Loop has a gate that doesn't open until 8:00 am. It says open from "Sunrise to Sunset"on their website, but I think they have a different opinion of sunrise than I do because we were driving in the light long before we got there, and the gate was still closed when we arrived. Then, one scenic road, Roaring Forks Motor Road, was closed most of the week we were there, and didn't open up till the last day of our vacation. That was disappointing, because many of the popular trails are accessed from Roaring Forks Motor Road. I hate to sound like a whiner. It truly was a wonderful vacation and a blessing to be able to visit the Smokies, but because I am reviewing a travel destination I have to be honest, and my readers need to be prepared if they are planning a trip to the Smokies. My husband and I have been to many National Parks in our travels, and I felt of all the parks I've been too, the Smokey Mountain National Park has done the least to help with crowd control. I do realize, the Smokies is the most visited park in the nation, but that fact alone should encourage MORE things to be done for crowd control. Having Visitor Centers and restaurants open earlier would help immensely. Also, park shuttles from Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge to the park's most popular trails would clear up parking lot space. I also feel even more trails, especially more family-friendly trails, would be beneficial.
But enough preaching, while at the closed Visitor Center, hubby spotted this beautiful crabapple tree and wanted to take a picture. So here is the pretty tree with the outside of the Visitor Center in the background.
As always, I've included a short video of the waterfall. I think you can get a much better idea of the falls through a video than pictures. It's hard to capture the beauty of moving water through a photo.
There was still plenty of daylight left on Day Four, so we decided to hike one more trail, and it ended up being my absolute FAVORITE trail in the park! I can't wait to share that one with you, but you will have to come back next week to see which trail it was!
This week's travel post is part of a travel series of our visit to see our grandchildren in Carmel, Indiana. If you want to start at the beginning, go HERE. Other posts in chronological order are HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE!
Visiting farms is a fun educational waytoteach children where their food comes from. While visiting our kids in Carmel, Indiana last fall, one of the things we did was take the grandchildren to a local farm. It's pretty funny since my husband and I already live in a farming community and the children could visit a farm anytime when they are visiting us...but we did it anyway!
The farm we visited was Wonder Tree Farm in Zionsville, Indiana. It is a working farm that is open to the public on Farm Days, and they have an on-farm market where you can purchase some of their products and visit with some of their animals.
Their market offers locally raised pastured meats, farm fresh eggs, raw dairy, and local honey.
Right when you walk through the barn doors, there are many animals ready to greet you. They were all pretty friendly too, with the exception of one grumpy old billy goat who can you meet in the video at the end of this post. 😀
Of course, my favorite animals of them all were all the kittens! My oh my, the barn was filled with the most beautiful, adorable kittens! I wanted to take them all home with me.
Alethea and Atticus both love kitties too. Just look at the smile on her face!
Horses and goats were ready to greet us as we entered the barn. They did not mind being petted at all and seemed to really like the attention.
Is this not the most adorable photo ever? It's as if the farmer put the kitty here on purpose just for a great advertisement, but he assured me he did not. The kitty really picked this spot for a nap.
Did you know chickens love watermelon? I sure didn't. The farmer got everyone's attention and told us to watch as he threw a watermelon on the ground. All the chickens came running over and they ate that watermelon as fast as you could blink your eye!
A modest chicken coup can be seen in the distance. Looks like the donkeys are enjoying the tall grass too.
Some cute ducks. I've sure been enjoying seeing the ducks come back this spring, have you?
And this baby goat was my absolute favorite. He was so cute. He kept trying so hard to get some food, but the bigger goats, especially the big old mean billy goat, would push him out of the way. Eventually my husband and I figured out a strategy but you will have to watch the video to find out what that was.
You can buy a cup of feed to feed the animals. They seemed to really appreciate it.
Before we headed home, I had to stop and check out the kitties one more time. I was amazed the kittens left the chickens alone. My Jackson would have had one for lunch. 😂
They sure all loved curling up in the hay to nap!
Finally, I have to sneak a picture in here of Atticus with his grandpa. He wasn't walking yet and was in the stroller the whole time so he didn't get as many pictures taken as Alethea did.
And now the long-awaited video. This baby goat is so cute, you don't want to miss it!
This week's travel post is part of a travel series of our visit to see our grandchildren in Carmel, Indiana. If you want to start at the beginning, go HERE. Other posts in chronological order are HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE!
Have you ever read a Bible story and wondered what it would have been like to see that in person? For me, I would have loved to have seen Moses part the Red Sea, or David slew the giant Goliath, to name just a few. Well, thanks to some very creative people you can now experience one Bible story yourself: Noah's Ark!
The Ark Encounter is full size ark built according to the dimensions and description in the Bible. You can read more about its construction in last week's travel post, plus see pictures of the exterior of the ark and the park grounds. This week, we are going to explore the INSIDE of the ark!
Below is my husband and I standing in front of the doors of the ark where Noah would have let all the animals in. They are massive, aren't they?
The ark is divided into three levels. The first level is mostly storage and small animals/reptiles. When you enter the ark, you hear lots of sound effects of wind, waves hitting the side of the boat, storm sounds, and lots of animal sounds.
In the storage exhibits they explain all the things Noah would have had to brought onto the ark to feed his family and all the animals and how they stored them.
There are many life-like displays of Noah and his family through out the ark, some are animontronic.
Here is another example of storage. One thing that amazed me was how they utilized every nook and cranny for storage.
The Ark Encounter showed how animals were probably kept on the ark and also how large animals fit on the ark. Larger creatures like dinosaurs or elephants were brought in as babies or perhaps even as unhatched eggs.
Here we see how the animals were fed.
Perhaps the most fascinating thing about being inside the ark is the construction itself. This is a view from the first floor looking straight up to the top of the ark.
You travel from one floor to another via these long ramps; very stroller and wheel chair friendly!
Like the Creation Museum, there are many displays explaining Bible history and what was going on in Noah's time period that God would be so angry to cause a world wide flood.
The next two pictures are actually miniature window displays. Once again, they are "possible" scenes of what the world would have been like before the flood.
My favorite exhibits were the ones of Noah and his family. You get to imagine what life might have been like for Noah and his family on the ark.
The next two pictures show a "blacksmith shop". I imagine things were constantly in need of repair on such a busy ark.
This is the view from the top floor looking straight down.
Here's some examples of some creative storage: where every nook and cranny on the ark is utilized.
Now, the Ark Encounter does everything it can to make sure its attraction is historically accurate according to the Bible. But the Bible doesn't tell us everything so many artistic liberties were taken or "imagined" by creation scientists/archeologists of how Noah, his family, and all the animals would have survived so long inside the ark. Below are some pictures of their possible living quarters.
My favorite part of their living quarters was the kitchen. I'd love to have this kitchen now! It showed not only how they stored everything and cooked, but also how they grew their own vegetables on the ark.
This exhibit shows Noah releasing the dove to look for land.
I loved every second of our tour inside the ark. There is no time limit, you can spend as much time as you want strolling about. There are many different other exhibits inside the ark that I didn't even show pictures of because I don't have space in one post! Some other exhibits are:
"Why the Bible Is True" where you walk the pages of a graphic novel and explore the many objections of why people do not trust God's Word.
"Kids Spooky Animal Encounters". This is a fun, but scary, exhibit for kids. It's a hands-on learning experience about all the creepy-crawly things that might have been on the ark.
"Fairy Tale Ark". This shows all the children's books and toy arks that have been created with a caution to parents that the Biblical story of Noah's ark isn't a story about cute little animals, rather it is a story of God's judgement on a wicked world.
"Rainbow Covenant" This exhibit features an artistic description of the covenant God made to never flood the earth again.
"World Flood Myths" There are over 200 mythical stories of world wide floods, which Biblical scholars say is proof that a real flood actually happened.
"What Happened After Noah Left The Ark?" How was the landscape changes? How did Noah and his family repopulate the earth? What did they eat...these are some of the questions answered in this exhibit
After we finished touring everything inside of the ark, we headed over to the Answer Center to hear a Southern Gospel Concert and Ken Ham speak. The concert was such a fun experience and the singers were very good. It was so fun and spiritually refreshing.
We have listened to Ken Ham speak on tv for years, but to see him in person was a real thrill. His presentation was amazing! Neither the concert nor the special presentation cost any extra money. It was included with the price of admission.
Here is a short video to give you a taste of what the concert is like.
And here is Ken Ham, the inspiration behind both the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter, speaking himself.
An adult Ark Encounter ticket costs $49.95 and there are discounts for seniors, youth, and kids. Children under four are FREE!
