Smoky Mountains

 

We went to Smoky Mountains on May 25th 2019.(Memorial Day Weekend)

Brief Summary:
Place: Smoky Mountains.
Location: Tennessee.
Distance: 423 miles.
Members: Me and my wife.
Transport: Nissan Versa.
Duration: 7 hours.

Experience:
       On 25th May we started around evening 5:45 pm from home, still it was sunny on that day but the weather was not so hot.We had our dinner around 8:00 pm in the car.We booked a cabin in Smoky Mountains.Around 1:05 am we reached cabin . Our cabin number is 6. We have good drive way to our cabin. We parked our car in front of the cabin. There were nearly 10 cabins around us.We entered into the cabin.Cabin was so beautiful.

We once looked at the entire cabin except the balcony because there were lot of insects. Then we slept around 1:20 am. The next morning we woke up around 6:00 am. After sometime we went into balcony we have Jacuzzi over there along with beautiful river view. The scenery was very beautiful from our balcony. We liked it very much. We used the Jacuzzi entire 3 days every morning and evening.My wife liked it so much.This is for the first time my wife experienced Jacuzzi. We got out after sometime and had our breakfast around 8:20 am. Then we started to Clingman's Dome around 8:56 am. We reached around 9:44 am. Then we did hike 0.5 miles to reach Dome. We nearly took 20 minutes as it was very steep, steeper rather than our normal hikes. We got tired but not so much that we had to stop. Around 10:10 am we reached Dome.From that top it was a great view of the Smoky Mountains.

Some of the mountains were covered with small clouds and some of them were shining in the sun light. It was beautiful to see. We spent sometime over there and we reached the parking around 10:40 am. Then we started to the Dollywood Theme Park. On the way to the theme park we saw a baby bear on the tree. We reached Theme Park around 11:44 am. We parked our car and we saw a tram which was taking people into the park we also went into the park by the tram. We took our tickets for two days to Dollywood. The Theme Park was so crowded, everyone was enjoying their weekend.There are many rides to do for the older as well as for kids. We also did 4 rides over there. First we did big ride in the entire park named Wild Eagle. That ride was so crazy, there were lot of twists and turns and we could experience how it feels when Eagle really swoops down in a jiffy from such great heights to catch its prey. We enjoyed a lot with that ride, then we did another ride called Fire Chaser Express. It was for the first time we experienced reverse drive, the cart was going backwards direction before it halted. Then around 2:30 pm we had our lunch. We went for another ride called Dare Devils Falls. This ride splashes into water ride but not fully a water ride. We enjoyed a lot with this ride as we were almost wet when it slid into the water pool. We still had some time left before we go on our next ride. So we had Dippin' Dots in the hot sunny climate. The atmosphere is very lively in the park with lot of crowded cheering, wandering, dancing, playing music. We took Dollywood express train.

It showed us the entire theme park. It was a pleasant ride. We could see the dark smoke puffed from the steam engine. Then we got back to our parking by the tram around 6:15 pm.Then around 7:40 pm we reached our cabin. There was a river flowing across the road as we drove to the cabin. The river was so beautiful. Many people were doing fishing ,hiking and camping over there. We had our dinner around 8:40 pm and then we discovered chess board on the dining table and took some time to find the chess pieces. We played one game and slept around 11:00 pm.
      The next day morning we woke up around 7:40 am. We had our breakfast around 8:40 am. We then started to Gatlinburg Space Needle around 9:05 am. We reached to Space Needle around 10:18 am. We parked our car near to the space needle. Then we went to the counter, got our tickets and waited for 10 minutes for elevator to arrive. It is like an observation tower with an altitude of 407 feet. We went to observation deck around 10:25 am which is at 400th feet. We have 360 degrees view of Smoky Mountains from there.

That was wonderful view we captured in our mobile cameras.From the observation deck we saw many carts, doing rides to the top. That name is Gatlinburg SkyLift park, actually it was in our plan but we did not expect that it would be so near to the space needle. After sometime we got down from the tower around 10:38 am. Then we started to SkyLift park on foot. We reached around 10:45 am. we stood in the line for almost 45 minutes, then we sat down on the cart. It took exactly 4 minutes to reach the top. We reached to the top around 11:42 am. There was a big sky bridge, the bridge was so beautiful and some part of the floor of the bridge had  glass bottom so we can see the valley right beneath us. My wife was so afraid to cross the bridge as the bridge was shaking while we were walking and she did not dare see through the glass floor. After walking slowly with my wife we reached other end of bridge. The view from the deck was wonderful. We captured some photos and got back to the first end of bridge again walking slowly with my wife. Then when I asked her "do you want to go again?" she said NO. That was our memorable and funny moment and a little frightened moment for my wife.
           Then we got into cart for riding us down and we reached our parking around 12:45 pm. Around 12:50 pm we started to Splash Country and reached around 1:30 pm.

The water park was fully crowded, as everyone came to enjoy cool water splash in the hot summer. All the lockers were full and after sometime we were able to find one. We first did a big ride in Splash Country named Swift Water Run.After long wait in the line we finally got our chance. We took a dual tube and passed through a huge tunnel which slid us down to the pool with a thud. Then we did another big ride named Big Bear Plunge. It has 4 different water tubes with different colors. We have done two out of the four. These rides were great and it was so much fun. We liked them very much. After that we did two small rides over there. Then we had our lunch around 4:30 pm. we changed our dress, got refreshed and came back to the parking 5:35 pm. We set our GPS route to our cabin but around 5:50 pm on our way we saw Gatlinburg Mountain Coaster. It was looking great and we decided to do that coaster ride. We enjoyed a lot with this ride, It was not a high elevated ride as such but it was a long ride. We had to drive our self in this which made it much more fun. Then we reached parking around 6:15 pm. On our way to the cabin we saw 4 Elks in one ground. We stopped the car took pictures and then returned to car. We reached cabin around 7:53 pm. We had our dinner around 9:30 pm and we slept around 11:30 pm.

     
        The next day morning we woke up around 6:15 am. We were ready by around 7 am and we took some photos of cabin and river. Then we did checkout the cabin around 8:00 am. We started to Gatlinburg. We reached around 9:15 am. We went to Starbucks  had our breakfast around 9:30 am. There were many interesting things around us in that area. So we decided to see some of them. First we went to Ripley's Believe It or Not around 9:45 am. It is like a museum, It is an American franchise founded by Robert Ripley. We saw so many strange and unusual stuff and things in the museum, really it was very interesting.Then we came out from that around 11:10 am. Next we went to Haunted adventure around 11:50 am.It was like walk-in thriller house. After sometime around 11:25 am we went into the Haunted house.

It was very big house decorated with haunted stuff and things. Once you go inside the house was in full dark. It was so scary to my wife. Then around 11:55 am we came out from haunted adventure. After that we went to 5D show around 12:00 pm.The show began around 12:10 am and we came out from 5D show 12:30 am. We were not fully happy with this show because there was no any difference between 4D and 5D. We expected something new in 5D but it was same like 4D. Then around 12:35 pm we started to Cades Cove. On our way to Cades cove we saw 4 pea hens. Then around 1:40 pm we reached Cades Cove.The Cades Cove is like a valley in Great Smoky Mountain National Park which we can view by driving across.Initially we saw 4 horses and then some pea hens, 4 bears and 2 Elks. It was very long loop ride. We were moving very slow to keenly observe the animals. There are no fences at all and it is like a wild life preserve. We liked it, we did not saw many animals over there but we liked it as it felt like a safari. We came out from Cades Cove around 4:00. Had our lunch at pigeon forge around 4:18 pm. After that we wanted to see any attractions or any rides in pigeon forget. There were so many attractions but we did not like them much as we had already done similar rides did not have any interest on these. We then decided to start to home. We started around 4:50 pm to our home. We had our dinner around 7:30 pm. Then we reached our home around 11:30 pm.

    This trip was so much memorable to us. We did rides, saw beauty of nature along with mountains. We liked the cabin very much. This was our first time experience with cabin. In 3 days of our trip we felt the cabin was our home. We did not want to leave the cabin while we were checking out. We could not leave that atmosphere, such a beautiful scenery and all. This trip was a good memory to my wife because she did the rides for the first time. We collected very beautiful memories and completed our trip with so much enjoyment along with playing our favorite songs in car when we are on our journey. All is Well.
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Manassas Gap

We had done hike to Manassas Gap on 4th May 2019 .It is located in Linden,Virginia.

Hike Location
Name: Manassas Gap
Distance: 122 miles from Herndon (approx)
Total hiking distance: 5 miles
Elevation Gain: 1055 ft
Hike Team: me and  my wife.

Hiking Experience: We decided to hike early morning this season and so got up around 4:20 am and then started around 5:34 am for the destination which is around 2 hours from our place. It was dark still by the time we started. We reached the parking lot around 7:45 am. There were few cars at the parking lot by the time we reached. It was cloudy with no wind. We started the hike around 7:50 am. The hike started with wooden bridge across a stream with flowing water due to previous  night heavy downpour.

The trail was very narrow with small plants and huge trees on either side of the trail. It was on Appalachian Trail (white blazed trail - A.T.).The trail was full of slippery stones and moss. The climate was just apt for our hike and leaves of the trees were shining in green colour as they were wet. Trail was steep. At some places there was mud on the trail covered with leaves making it little difficult to hike. Soon the trail got wider, with steep still remaining the same. It started drizzling though initially we thought it was the water on the leaves. The rain was on and off as we hiked further. We decided not to turn back until we are done with the hike. There were wooden steps on the trail. As we climbed further the trail took lot of turns and suddenly the steep increased as we carefully climbed the slippery rocks. So far we have not seen any companion on our way. As we walked further there were stone walls to our left which were little damaged and seems like they were used to contain the cattle. The trail got straight and we were passing in midst of trees. It was good relief. Due to the huge tree cover we just experienced few drops of rain. we saw couple of deers at a distance which quickly disappeared into the woods.

There were beautiful flowers with various colors on the side of the trail which made it more scenic. We continued our path on the A.T. As we were enjoying the hike in such a wonderful atmosphere all of sudden we heard some heavy breathing and foot steps. we were startled and turned to see our first fellow hiker pacing steadily and he quickly crossed us and went ahead. There was a stream which is passing by on the side of the trail. At some points there were huge trees with large trunks on the middle of the trail appeared as though blocking the way. we went ahead with steady pace and soon we reached our destination point the Manassas Gap Shelter at 9:22 am. It was a wooden shelter with one room and has picnic table and fire pit. There was Register as well in the shelter. We had our breakfast around 9:25 am. By this time we could experience the heat of Sun as the clouds moved away. It was great experience to hike all the way and have breakfast in the middle of the jungle echoed by bird songs.

Around 9:35 am we signed the register and started to return. We just need to retrace our steps to reach the parking lot. While returning we saw many hikers long the path along with their pets.It was downhill for most of the time. With scorching heat from the Sun,slippery rocks and muddy path the descent was not easy as we thought. Slowly we walked down and was surprised to learn that we have hiked all that way up couple of hours before. It was a great feeling of achievement and we continued further. Around 10:45 am reached the parking lot. By the time we reached , there were couple of elder people helping the hikers with food and drinks. There were so many cars now being parked and it was almost full. We did couple of exercises to relax our muscles and left for home around 10:50 am. we thoroughly enjoyed every moment of our hike, discussed about our experience, as this was our first hike of this season and had our lunch around 12:30 pm in the car itself and reached home around 1:00 pm. It was a great memorable experience. All is Well.
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