After spending the first day of the Thanksgiving trip at Pigeon Forge, it was time to explore the Gatlinburg area and the mighty Smokey Mountains.
The day kicked off for me earlier than the rest of the gang. I have the habit of getting up early in the morning irrespective of the fact whether I am working or not. Today was no different. As I got up early, I grabbed my book and headed outside to explore some early morning scenes of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. I was so impressed with the upside down house at Pigeon Forge known as the WonderWorks house that I knew I had to show it to my family back in India, so, as soon as I reached the spot, which was entirely empty at 7 in the morning, I showed them the place and they were also surprised to see how realistic everything was. The real grandeur of the place can be conceived only when you see this place in person.
After showing the place to my family, I headed back to a nearby Starbucks and spent a good 30-40 minutes reading a book. It felt nice, serene, and peaceful to just spend time reading the book and sipping my favorite coffee – Pike Place Medium Roast.
After I got back from my little “stroll”, it was time to get back together with the group and start the official trip.
The first order of business was to head to the breakfast place, which was right next to our hotel. The arrangement seemed quite odd to me, but I made sure I had enough food as we had a long and busy day before us.
After the breakfast, it was time to head to the first stop of the day – exploring “Laurel Falls” which was one of the waterfalls in the Smokey Mountains. Laurel Falls was different than most waterfalls as we had to hike a little bit to get to the falls, plus, it was a paved falls, which meant that we didn’t have to go through strenuous efforts to get to the falls. Once we reached the falls, though, we had to deal with the crowd as it was flocked with so many tourists like ourselves, but, we got good view and shots at this place.
The second place to visit was the spot that I wasn’t expecting to strike a chord with me. Before visiting this place, I had just seen the documentary about it and how grand this trail was. I am talking about the “APPALACHIAN TRAIL“. When we parked our vehicles and started exploring different things that the place had to offer, little did I know that I would stumble upon the holy grail of all the trails here in the US. The history behind the Appalachian Trail is rich and filled with so many stories, but, when I saw the sign showing the path which leads to the actual trail, I didn’t have words to explain the feeling. I was feeling all the emotions at once, and it was just surreal and so unreal. All the articles that I had read about this trail and the documentary that I had watched earlier came rushing towards me and I couldn’t resist but imagining myself hiking through this trail in future. However, we did walk a few paces on the trail, but it was too cold for us to continue for a long time.
If you are in Tennessee or Smokey Mountain area, this is the spot I would highly recommend visiting.
And that brings us to the last stop of the day and that was the Downtown Gatlinburg. By the evening, we all were hungry, so the downtown area turned out to be a good place to have some delicious food after a long day of exploration. Plus, the Christmas and Holiday decoration and spirits were in full swing at this place, which buttressed our festive feelings, and it truly felt like we were vacationing in the beautiful city, surrounded by lovely people.
Next stop: Second day of exploring Gatlinburg, TN, USA
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