We are maintaining our schedule pretty well.  We got up a little earlier, but took our time about breakfast.  After straightening up, we head out to the park yet again.  Today, we go across the park to Cherokee, NC.As a kid, we used to come to the Smokies and camp.  We always went over to Cherokee to check out the Indian reservation.  There were several shops and places where the Cherokee would do different dances.  We would walk around, watch the shows, and just hang out.  I couldn’t pass up going over to see how much it had changed.

But first, we have a couple of side trips to make.  Our first stop is at the Sugarland Visitor’s Center.  There is a trail to the Cataract Falls.  This is labeled as an easy one and short.  We park at the center and follow the directions to go to the bathrooms.  Sounds strange, but just beyond the bathrooms is the trail to Fighting Creek and Cataract Falls.

As we are walking down to the start of the trail, a man stops me to ask about the trail.  I explain what I’ve learned about the nature trails.  He asks questions about what to expect.  We say good-bye and head down the trail.  It’s pretty easy with few ups and downs.  You walk over several bridges and under the main bridge for the road.  We go up a set of set steps and through the forest.  A beautiful waterfall is at the end of the trail.  We take a couple of pictures and enjoy the view.

We head back to the car.  On the way, we run into a couple with a baby stroller.  We explain the trail and that they will have to lift the stroller in a couple of places.  We leave them and continue on to the car.  We then drive over to Sugarland Valley Nature Trail.  What luck!  This is an easy trail also.  It is all concrete walkway through the forest.  The trail is on a homestead site where cabins had stood and open corn fields.  The stream here is very nice with lots of rapids and rocks.  Rich is looking for trout without any luck.

We get to the construction, which is where the Chimneys overlook is at.  We want to stop and get pictures.  This means we have to pull up to the next pullout and walk back to the overlook.  The sun is shining in the wrong direction for good pictures.  We figure we’ll try to stop again on the way back.

In the car, Rich figures out that we see the Chimneys rock formations for another overlook further up the road.  We drive up and find the Morton Overlook, which did indeed have a much better view and vantage without the sun.  We get the pictures and read the sign for the overlook named for Ben Morton who pushed for the roads through the park.

Back on the road again, we head to Oconauluftee Visitor’s Center and Farm Museum.  This the southeast entrance to the park from the North Carolina side.  Here, they have a museum set up with buildings, gardens, and other things to depict farm life in the early 1800s.  I find it cool.  It reminds of my grandparents’ farms in a lot of ways.  There is a house, smokehouse, barns, applehouse, honey hives, pig pen and chicken house.  There is one lonely little piglet and a couple of chickens.

Inside the Visitor’s Center, Rich checks out the swinging bridge trail we tried to take.  Yes, that was definitely a huge drop on the trail.  Good thing we didn’t try that one.  We check out the falls where we are going today.  Time to hit the road again.

We drive through Cherokee.  It definitely looks a lot different than I remember it.  There is only one place with Cherokee dancers.  There are lots of stores and more modern buildings.  I see a couple of older places that resemble the buildings I remember.  We continue through and head out toward Bryson City.  The entrance for this part of the park is out in the middle of nowhere, but we are confident we can find it.  Rich is reading the map and tells me to turn on Tom Branch Rd.  I never see a road named this or has the State Road number he tells me.  I continue on past the one that Rich it should be.

Now we are going into Bryson City.  It’s a small town with a touristy downtown.  It’s cute.  We wind out way out of town on a small country road.  After a couple of turns, we get to the park entrance.  Right outside of the entrance, we drive through the middle of someone’s tube rental business.  It looks funny because there are stacks of yellow tubes on either side of us.  Then we see the park entrance.  I guess they really want you to rent a tube for the river.

First stop is lunch though.  We drive into the picnic ground and find a table right next to a stream.  We have our ham and cheese sandwiches.  I have a peach and Rich opts for a banana.  That should hold us until dinner.  As we eat, a group of people come by with their dogs.  It’s like a furry friends group outing and they brought their master along.

Rich stops a lady who is walking by about the waterfall.  She tells about the June Whankey falls and then continues her walk.  We load up and move on to the parking lot for the trail.  So the trail starts at the Deep Creek trail and takes you up .1 miles to another trail going around the mountain side for .2 miles to the miles.  The return trip is .1 miles down to the Deep Creek trail again.

This first section is like straight up!  I’m huffing and puffing again and begging to stop every couple of feet.  We get to the next section, which is a horse trail to where the waterfall trail starts.  It’s very convoluted.  But the falls are worth the trip.  There is a bench to sit on and look up at the falls.

Some lady is standing at the side shouting instructions to some guy as he is scrambling all over the water below the falls.  There are signs everywhere telling you to stay out of the water and off the falls.  I’m surprised he didn’t slip and fall.  It might be fun, but it is very dangerous.  The bill to rescue you won’t be cheap either.

We head up the other side and down a steep ravine to get back to the Deep Creek trail on the other side.  As we are going down, the lady who answered Rich’s questions was coming up.  I stop to ask her about her running shoes.  I’ve been looking for a new pair and these look like what I want.  She tells me they are old and handed down from her daughter.  That figures.  I like the old style and not the new ones.

We get down to the Deep Creek trail and decide to follow it for a while.  Up ahead, we see another waterfall.  This is the Tom Branch waterfall.  It is high with several individual drops that create a nice cascade.  There are benches so you can sit and admire the water.  I sit while Rich is taking pictures.  It’s hard to get good clean pictures since there is some guy crawling around through the water with a tripod trying to take exposure pictures of the falls.

After a rest, we decide to continue up the Deep Creek trail to see what else is there.  We know this trail makes a loop, but it pretty long and we don’t have time to walk the entire thing.  We get to the top of a rise and see a sign for another waterfall.  This is the Indian Creek waterfall.  We walked down a very steep path to reach the falls.  It was spectacular.  Rich went further down to get better pictures.  I hear a small yelp and he is balancing on a couple of logs.  I yell down that I’m not coming to the rescue if he falls.

We start back up the trail and return to the car.  We saw a group of guys coming down the river in rafts when we were walking up.  As we walk back down to the car, we pass two different groups of ladies on their way up to raft the river.  I can image how cold that water is coming down from the mountain.

We get back to the car and unload our stuff.  The first group of guys have strung all of their rafts together on top of a van.  Only one doesn’t fit and someone is holding it out of a window.  That doesn’t look safe.  They pull out ahead of me from the parking lot and stop in the exit.  I have to drive around them to get out.

Rich has decided that we are going to follow the same road back.  He is pretty sure that the road right across the creek from the parking lot is the road he was looking for.  I’m up for anything, right after a bathroom break.  I come out from the bathroom to find one of the dogs yelling at Rich.  He’s telling Rich to stay away from his people.  Dachshunds are protective.

We turn back to this road that Rich wants to travel.  As soon as we get over the bridge, it becomes gravel and single lane.  There is no turning back now.  We are committed.  The roads winds up and up and over a couple of pretty good sized hills.  At the top, we hit pavement again.  I don’t recognize the name of the road.  But the GPS seems to know where we are.  We wind through the countryside and make a couple of turns.  Then we are back on the main road.  It is the turn that Rich indicated on the way in.

We get back into Cherokee.  I just have to stop at one of the trading posts.  I promise this is the only one.  We walk around the store, which is full of the same tchotky stuff that you would expect.  There is a mountain lion on display with a squirrel in his mouth.  I tell Rich I’ve seen that before with Sascha at the last squirrel she got.  I see only a silver watch in the case that I would like.  But my money is running low and I can’t take advantage of it.

We’re back on the road again and going through the park.  Everywhere, the drivers of motorcycles and cars alike are going 10 miles under the speed limit.  I’m feeling like I can’t get anywhere.  There are some great hills here that are fun to drive at the full speed.  We drive straight through without any more stops.

It is time to clean up for dinner.  We shower and dress in our best causal.  Tonight, we go to Mama’s Farmhouse for dinner.  It is dinner served family style.  Surprisingly, we don’t really have to wait in line anywhere for dinner.  We are seated in a small room toward the kitchen.  Billy, our server, comes by for drink orders and explains what we’ll be getting for dinner.

There is fried chicken, country fried steak, and country ham tonight.  The sides are corn pie, mac and cheese, broccoli casserole, sweet potato casserole, and mashed potatoes and gravy.  We eat up.  Billy is giving us a hard time about cleaning our plates and all of the sides before we can get dessert.  There is only banana pudding since the peach cobbler is all gone.  We are stuffed.

We roll out the door where one of the doormen stops us to try and sell tickets to events on the main strip.  No, we are tired and not interested.  He comments on Rich’s Ren Faire sandals.  Everyone is making comments about them.  Do they really like them or trying not to make fun of them?  I love mine.  Those are my hiking shoes for this week.

We get back to the cabin and settle into our routine for the evening.  We write blogs and deal with pictures.  Then we get our IPAs, of which these are the last two, and we sit out on the porch looking at the stars.  It was a great day and a great way to spend our anniversary.  It’s been 20 years since our wedding and the reception in the backyard.  Hardly seems like it has been that long.  I wouldn’t trade him for anyone else, on his good days.