Greenest state in the land of the free? Probably.

I cannot get over how incredibly green with trees, plants, and shrubberies the state of Tennessee is. I just LOVE it! North Carolina was very green and woodsy for sure, but, Tennessee seems to have green things growing out of green things.

A Peaceful-ish hike

We went early in the afternoon because we had church until noon. Spent maybe 3.5 hours there. Wasn’t busy at all. Makes for quiet and oh-so peaceful hikes.

Of course, now we have Izzy along for the ride and sometimes she’s SO loud that I feel that she might be ruining other hikers experiences and probably scaring away the wildlife along the way. Oops. Sorry fellow hikers.

Cataract Falls hike: outside of Sugarland Visitor Center

A super short and easy hike which I loved starting with because truth be told we are not really outdoorsy people and we have an almost 2 year who is all over everything 24/7. Found a lovely little creek along the trail for the kids to splash around in.

Laural Falls: 2.6 mile hike roundtrip on a paved trail.

It took a couple of hours. Also, it’s up hill ALL the way to the falls. Totally worth seeing! Kept our 21 lb Izzy in her Ergo carrier. To many places on the trail for her to trip and fall to her doom.

It’s FREE! (sort of)

This National Park itself was free, but they charge anywhere from $.50-$2.00 for trail maps and the junior ranger program book was $2.00 I believe. I absolutely LOVE the Jr. Ranger program for my kids and for myself because we’ve learned SO much over the years with each visit to a National Park. This year Zac was done with it and moved on to the National Parks Passport. No cool activities or mazes found in it’s pages, but you can put a stamp of the name of the park you visited and the date. Stamp found in visitor centers.

This NP had the Not-So-Junior-Ranger program for ages 13-130 and of course I found that out after the fact though. Not sure if other Parks have it. For sure going to check at the next NP we visit.

Amazing scenery!

Upon our return to Pigeon Forge we captured a picturesque view of the tourist hangout, Gatlinburg, TN.

The rest of the fun at Smoky Mountain NP…