Vacation Day 9 - more Smoky mountains

Thursday August 11, we headed back to Smoky Mountain National Park, but this time, we took the long driving route.  I really cannot even begin to describe the beauty that is Eastern Tennessee, yet alone the Smoky Mountains.  Yes, they are every bit as beautiful and majestic as everyone says.  My pictures can't do them justice.  We were careful to drive slowly so as not to invoke any unwanted car sickness.  This was definitely not the most exciting thing about this trip for the kids, but they did catch up on some much needed sleep - by this time in our vacation we had a lot of late nights.

About halfway through our drive, we discovered this cute little swimming hole.  Bruce was in heaven.  We were not prepared to do any swimming, but that did not seem to stop Bruce.  It was a good thing the kids were asleep during this part of the journey because I'm sure they would have been right behind Bruce, and we didn't bring any spare changes of clothes.

                                 Always one to jump off nearly any cliff - Bruce had a blast!

I stayed on the side observing not only him, but other families.  Sometimes people watching is just as fun as doing something crazy like cliff jumping.  

After Bruce got his fill of the water, we continued on our scienic drive.  Bruce really enjoyed the farm land like countryside.

This area of the park was full of rustic cabins, cottages, and small churches.  We got out of the van for a little while wanting to hike the rainbow falls trail.  When we finally found the trail head and discovered that it was 5 miles round trip, we decided to pass.  I know our young children wouldn't have made it, and I didn't think my parents wanted to sit with them for that long.  Plus my arthritic body probably wouldn't have tolerated such a distance.

Our drive through was beautiful - awe inspiring really.   

 No trip to the Smoky Mountains would be complete without a picture by this sign.  It was actually difficult to get this picture.  At least they had a post we utilized as a camera stand and set the timer.  It turned out pretty good I think.