While in Pigeon Forge, we stayed at this small family run park Creekside RV Park. Nice large spots and a great location to see the area.We had booked a Pink Jeep Tour of the Smoky Mountains and the day we were to go turned out to be one of the coldest days yet this year! We went anyway and because of the weather I suppose, we were the only passengers for our tour, so we got a private tour! This was the Skybridge, the longest suspension pedestrian bridge in the country, 680′ long and 140′ up. There are apparently plexiglass panels in the middle so you can see straight down! NO, we did not go out on it!A nice view of Gatlinburg down below. Fall colors are here!The road our guide took us on was a one way narrow road deep into the woods. Beautiful fall colors everywhere!As I said, a cold day, but even our guide was surprised to see snow so early in the season! We saw this plant throughout the area. It looked too tropical to even be here! We learned from the Jeep tour driver that it’s called a Mimosa plant. It’s much prettier not covered in snow. The bare trees you see in this shot were a result of a previous fire.Partway through the tour we were taken to an old homestead. It was alongside this creek and was pretty cool; left just as it had been years ago (except for the gift shop of course!)This was the maine house. The family lived here for years; the parents and 9 children!Notice the precision with which they leveled the house?This was the enclosure for some of the animals they kept, pigs, goats, chickens, etc.A storage structure for their food staples.A small waterfall nearby.The obligatory gift shop!The house needed a little roof work.The stableIts very green here, stuff grows on anything stationary!Those are grindstones for the grist mill that’s run by water from the creek.There were a couple old Dodge trucks on the property. Just a little clean up and they’re be good as new!The gate was pretty cool!Like I said, stuff grows on anything that doesn’t move!Creekside of the mill.One last look at the snow and fog. The fog is what gave these mountains their name, Smoky Mountains!
our fall colors drive
On another much warmer day we took a drive through the Smoky Mountains to see the colors without snow and ice.Chimney Tops was in full color!A pretty roadside creek.You can really see the “Smoky” Mountains here!We even were lucky to come across this small herd of Elk grazing on this meadow.
kentucky
While in Kentucky we stayed at Dale Hollow State Park. It was beautiful and because it was the last week of the season to be open for camping, pretty deserted. The colors were out here too.Our campsite was nice and big, but the placement of our water source was a bit odd! Luckily I carry a 75′ hose!Set up just in time for sunset.The rains brought out the mushrooms!We did venture down to the Marina but as you can see, it was pretty deserted as well.It’s a pretty nice marina with a store, bar and restaurant. Too bad they were closed!My artsy shot of the pier!We didn’t do much in Kentucky but we did venture out one day to see Mammoth Cave National Park. This was a house we saw along the way and I just had to get a picture of it! Kind of cool don’t you think, in a fixer-upper kind of way? Hmmm, I’ll bet our rig would fit right next to it!We entered the park and loved the scenery, but unfortunately for us a bridge was out so we couldn’t explore much of it. We went to the Visitor’s Center and learned about the cave but decided we didn’t need to see another underground cave on such a nice day as this! Much of the road through the park is one way.This was about all we saw, kind of disappointing but, hey, we got another NP sticker!
