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.
