On Tuesday it was time to head home. Zac packed up the campsite while I took the kids on the little nature trail loop that went up the hill right by the campground. We enjoyed our last little bit of mountain nature.
Simon loves to climb in these viney branches.
It's amazing what you see when you slow down to look.
One last time across the water...
On our way out of the park, we stopped by the mountain farm museum adjacent to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center.
For lunch, we had a picnic at one of the roadside pull-offs.
Then we drove home...restored, refreshed and rejuvenated by the abundance of nature and the lack of cell phone coverage that prevented me from doomscrolling on Twitter endlessly.
Rest assured, Cicada is still living (barely) happily in his frisbee habitat.
The plan for today was to do the Alum Cave Nature Trail up to the Cave Bluffs and then turn around.
This trail was much better than yesterday's horse poop road. It ran alongside a beautiful stream. The only downside was that it was a quite popular trail, so we encountered lots of people on the paths. We had no problem finding uninhabited parts of the stream to play at though.
We love these big ol' trees!
Alice seems to have lost some confidence in herself when it comes to stream crossing. Meanwhile, Simon usually just works his way across and doesn't really worry about getting his shoes wet.
I love all the log bridges in this park!
Going through Arch Rock was super cool.
After many side excursions to play at the stream and have many snacks, we finally made it to our destination: Alum Cave Bluffs. It was so late in the day by the time we got there that it wasn't very crowded anymore.
The kids had a lot of fun playing in the dust. Alice dug and Simon kicked.
They were filthy.
The hike back was quicker because it was downhill. We still stopped to snack and play a few times though.
Back down through the arch.
For the last segment of the hike, it rained. We ended up using umbrellas at the end, but I briefly took shelter under this tree first.
Luckily, each evening back at camp the weather cleared up and we could have a nice campfire. Tonight it was Alice's turn to make it.
We took a little glow-stick walk around the campground at night.
The nice part about being in the mountains was that it was refreshingly cool. We slept well at night--not too cold, and then needed pants and long sleeves in the morning. By the time we were ready to head out for our hike, it had warmed up enough for shorts and T-shirts. It was really humid from raining every afternoon, but not too hot or uncomfortable at all. It was a welcome break from the 95 degree heat we'd been having in Cary.
Simon loves finding daddy longlegs with really long legs.
Our hike for the day started from the campsite and ran along a creek, on an old logging road.
I just loves creeks and streams so much. I could sit here all day.
Simon wanted us to take lots of pictures of him with mushrooms. He loves finding mushrooms.
We finally made it to the Chasteen Cascade, which was pretty cool.
Simon likes doing weird poses and Simon likes moss.
Although the river next to the road was beautiful and the creeks were nice, we actually hated this hike. Most of it was on a wide road with ample horse poop. The last part of the hike was rainy, so we ran or briskly walked most of the way, while Zac ran ahead to bring the van to the trail head so we wouldn't have to walk even further through the campground.
Since it was raining, we passed the time by driving up to Clingman's Dome. It was entirely in a cloud with no view whatsoever and even rained on our way back down. So much for that.
Once we got back tot he bottom, it started clearing up a bit. Of course.
Mountain views are so beautiful.
We stopped at a roadside pull-off and did one of the little "Quiet Walkways" trails. It went by some pretty big old trees!
Back at camp, Simon check on his cicada, in this very special frisbee habitat he made for it.
We had hot dogs and baked beans for supper and slept well after all that hiking.
