“The mountains are calling and I must go” -John Muir

Our family took a road trip to the mountains of TN and NC. We had such an amazing time playing in streams, hiking on mountain trails, visiting towns, and hanging out at a cabin. We dropped our son off at a mountain adventure camp where he went white water rafting, caving, and hiking. We made so many awesome memories together and wanted to share some of our pictures with all of you!

Loading up the car – 9 people makes for a fun road trip! I made the kids binders with games like tic tac toe, hangman, and hidden pictures in sheet protectors so they could use dry erase markers and play again and again. They also had coloring books and crayons, stickers, small toys, a bag with wipes and a change of clothes in case of car sickness, and of course snacks. We played the Alphabet Game, Name a Song, and other games as we drove. We took our time driving up and stopped for the night at a hotel. Though they were in the car for 2 days, Jason and I were surprised that most of the kids didn’t use portable DVD players or go on screens that much! That’s a sign of a good road trip!

This is a picture of our cabin from Eden Crest Vacation Rentals.

The cabin had lots to do! There was an arcade game, pool table, activity books, board games, a jetted bathtub with a tv in the bathroom, a hot tub, and a play set and swimming pool nearby.

The hot tub was on the top patio and you could sit in it and enjoy the view. Sunset in the hot tub was especially pretty!

The incredible view!

Going for a walk to explore the area near the cabin:

Last fall there was a terrible fire in TN. Parts of the national park and a lot of properties and cabins burned down, and people lost their lives. Even right near our cabin, you could see the damage caused by the fire.

Enjoying the hot tub:

From our patio, we had the perfect view of the fireworks from Dollywood every night! It was like our own personal fireworks show!

Dropping our oldest off at his mountain adventure camp:

Not only did they get to go to all the adventure activities, they also had all the traditional camp activities when they got back to the actual camp. Our son especially enjoyed paint balling and paddle boarding.

His bag was almost as big as he was!

The first adventure at their camp was white water rafting. They got to jump off of this huge rock into the water. The camp shared pictures with parents so we could see what the kids were doing.

The second adventure was exploring a cave. They crawled through tight spaces, slid down rocks, and went through holes.

The last adventure was a hike to the top of a mountain!

Meanwhile, with our oldest at camp, we did some adventuring of our own. On our way to go hiking, Jason spotted an abandoned paintball field with a creepy bunny and a cool truck. Of course he stopped for a couple quick pictures.

The Great Smoky Mountain National Park:

We pulled over for a picture with the entrance sign and our kids immediately started to climb and explore!  I love that!  I want them to be able to explore in nature all the time.

As we drove, we saw a stream winding by the road. We didn’t get too far before the kids were begging for us to stop and check out the stream.

Only a minute or two went by before our kids decided that they could not resist playing in the water. No towel, no change of clothes, but why not?! We of course gave them a talk about safety on slippery rocks and the strong current before they went in, and we were right near them the whole time. The water was cold, but refreshing!

After playing in the water, we wanted to hike to a waterfall but all the trail heads for the hikes our kids could do were PACKED! We instead went up to Cade’s Cove where we stopped for ice cream before driving the scenic loop. The fields of wild flowers and the layers of mountains made my hear happy! We saw 3 bears during the drive too, one REALLY close to the side of the road!

Sunset back at our cabin. Can you believe that this was our view every night?!  God is good!

After seeing how crowded the trails to all the waterfalls were, we changed our plan the next day and decided to hike up to Clingman’s Dome. It is the highest point in the Smoky Mountain National Park. The hike is short, but there is a steep incline. I was so proud of how great the kids did!  At the top is an observation tower where you can see both TN and NC for miles. It was in the low 60s at the top of the mountain (LOVED THAT!) and there were trees there that you normally only see in northern states. Our favorite part of the hike was that we were ABOVE THE CLOUDS for part of the hike! In fact, on the way down, we walked THROUGH A CLOUD! The girls were surprised that you couldn’t actually float on the cloud like in cartoons. You could definitely feel the wet, cold mist of it though!

In the cloud!

After the mountain top hike, the kids wanted to go back to play in the stream again. This time we were prepared with bathing suits.

The golden road on the drive back to the cabin.

Absolutely breath taking sunset sky! God’s great Earth!

Though Jason and I could have spent the entire time in the park, the kids wanted to try different things, so we took an air tram to Ober Gatinlinburg.

The view from the tram was nice, but I do not recommend it! The wait was super long, both going up and coming down, and it was so crowded in the tram that our family couldn’t even stand together. Jason got this picture by holding his camera up above everyone. The girls and I were stuck in the middle without any view, but with quite an unpleasant smell (yuck). Instead of paying for both parking for the tram and the tram ride itself, we could have drove up to the town and parked there with no wait! Still, we made the best of it.

Some of the rides at Ober Gatlinburg were a chair swing, carousel, a kiddie train, a play area, water slides, a maze, a chair lift to the top of the mountain, and a mountain slide down the mountain. Our 1 year old loved these little cars that went around in circles. He must have rode them 10 times! When we finally took him out, he cried for “Car Car!” and kept trying to run back to the ride!

The maze had 4 letters you had to find and get stamps for, and then you had to find your way out. If you finished in 8 minutes or less, you got a prize (a little rubber popper toy).

The chair lift had 2 stops – 1/2 way up the mountain for people riding the mountain slide, and all the way to the top where there was a band.

The mountain slide:

Jason took 2 of our kids white water rafting! They had a blast! Our daughter said it was her favorite thing EVER and our son said he barely remembered to paddle because he had too much fun bouncing and having the water splash his face.

When they got back from their rafting fun, we all went to check out The Island, a shopping area with activities too. The younger girls tried out a kids’ ropes course.

We went to a mirror maze which had flashing lights (it even went completely dark for a bit!) and was harder than I thought it would be! We went through a couple times and then we timed ourselves to see how quickly we could find the end. My record was just under 9 minutes.

Jason in a laser maze. He broke 6 lasers – HAHAHAHA! (I only broke 2, and my hair was responsible for one of them).

The girls were so happy to be in the cabin for the premiere of Descendants 2! We got our popcorn and watched as a family.

The drive home :(. The road trip back felt faster than the ride there, probably because we didn’t want to leave! We were happy to be home, but we already miss the mountains!!