a G-R-E-A-T day in great smoky mountain national park

Despite the torrential downpour of rain, 

the fog obscuring our mountain views, 

and even the snow flurries that were 

proof of how cold it was, we had a great day at 

great smoky mountain national park! 

Believe it or not, the great smoky mountains is the most visited US national park. More than the grand canyon or yosemite or yellowstone. And it also happens to be one of the closest parks to me, so it's crazy that we hadn't visited it yet when it's right in my backyard. We definitely needed to remedy that, but were waiting for the timing to be right. 

We almost visited last spring when we did our southern road trip to Nashville Tennessee and Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. But at the last minute, we decided to wait and try to catch the smoky mountains during fall foliage season when they are at their best. It was a risk to do this with not knowing how the weather would be or exactly when the leaves would change. But even with the rain and snow, we definitely think that it paid off. 

For our first stop coming into the park, we drove the blue ridge parkway in through the North Carolina entrance to hike along the oconaluftee river trail.

It was the quickest trail along the river with the best pay off of spotting these elk and mountain views.

popping in for a closer look, loved seeing the elk baby calves 

 then back onto the road 


watching for elk crossings as we passed

We always like to do an iconic hike during our national park visits. And for the Great Smokies, Mount LeConte is the obvious choice. We didn't get to hike the entire mountain side since the fog was rolling in and blocking our views, but we did hike the best part with doing the 5 mile loop to the Alum Cave Trail on the Tennessee side of the national park.

getting started on the trail even with their being a constant downpour of rain 

We are no strangers to hiking in crazy weather, so we've learned a few things and I had on all the layers to keep warm including this base layer and hiking leggings, two patagonias: a fleece & a thermal insulator, this rain jacket, and coat. Definitely ready for any weather on the mountain. 

over the river and through the woods...to the top of a mountain we go 

our first glimpse of the caves! 

before you hit the actual cave, you pass through this smaller archway cave, which is a nice little teaser and motivation to keep going 

perfect timing with some of the fog rolling out in time to catch some great views on our way up

and finally climbing the last peak to our destination

Alum Cave with my favorite Caveman!

Glad to call the great smokies our 17th national park visit together. And even happier that we waited to visit this place at the best time of the year. It was the perfect stop along our autumn road trip on the blue ridge parkway.