After our rather late night, everyone slept in a bit. Hallelujah.
We got breakfast, prepped everything, and then headed back to the park to do some hiking. Fun fact: GSMNP is the most visited National Park in the USA, it gets about 12 million visitors a year.
For today, we opted to do a hike up to Laurel Falls. It is a fairly short trail (3 miles roundtrip) with a huge payoff (amazing falls!) and a low elevation gain. So naturally, it is a busy trail, there were lots of people when we went. But somehow, we lucked out and got some executive parking! Sweet!
The trail meanders through a lovely forest and there is plenty to see all along the way, and plenty of rocks for Isaac and Evie to climb on and examine. Naturally, this slowed us down a bit, but it was fine.
Jonas and Logan opted to hike ahead of the rest of us for most of the time. They hiked and then they would pause and wait for us to catch up, while reading Jonas’s new reptile book. And then they were off again.
Several times, hikers coming back from the falls stopped us and asked if our two boys were up ahead. Apparently in each case, the hikers had stopped to ask the boys if they were lost and then once they knew we were coming, they asked the boys what they were reading, and they apparently got an ear-full of reptile and amphibian facts. Haha!
The Falls
Eventually we made it up to the falls. And it was GORGEOUS! The walkway goes over the river, and so part of the falls are above you and part of the falls comes out from the walkway below you. It’s lovely.
While we were there, we took the opportunity to give everyone some snacks to fortify them for the trip back down. After we had finished our snacks, we headed back down.
In the end, the twins walked the ENTIRE way!!! We were so impressed and positively delighted! This is a big step for our family!
After we completed our hike, we headed back to the hotel for lunch and to allow for yammy naps and rest time. Isaac and Evie both crashed fast and hard. They slept for about 3 hours.
After naps, we were all rather hungry and so we decided to do a slightly early dinner. There was a pizza place about .2 miles away, and so we opted to walk. And since we were on the early side, we got in and out pretty quickly. And the pizza was delightful.
After dinner, we walked back to the hotel and decided to do a movie night. Jonathan turned on the Sandlot and I went in search of some microwave popcorn, as well as some small souvenirs (stickers, patches and keychains, as per usual)
Gatlinburg is a small tourist-heavy town with a main strip that runs through it. And so, I walked up the main strip and I eventually found what I was looking for.
It was another amazing day.
