Zach and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary a few weeks ago. When we first started talking about 20th anniversary trips, we had visions of Mediterranean cruises and Hawaiian beaches and European cities. With COVID still impacting travel and prices and safety, we scaled back our plans and decided to revisit our honeymoon destination.
We returned to the Smoky Mountains.
We couldn't find our same honeymoon house from 20 years ago, but we did spend our week in this cute and cozy cabin in Sieverville called Chubby Bear.
The little one bedroom cabin had everything we needed. We cooked and grilled with the kitchen supplies, watched the Bear's game and a few movies on the couch, relaxed in the hot tub on the deck, and enjoyed the opportunity to sleep in on several of our days.
We spent our days enjoying the beautiful weather and each other's company with some fun hikes. Our first day included an 8 mile roundtrip hike to Ramsey Cascades.
The trail was fairly strenuous and not at all busy, and the falls are my new Smoky Mountain favorites.
After our full day of hiking, we relaxed in the hot tub, had a scrumptious meal of steaks that Zach grilled, and then watched the Bear's season opening game. The only thing that would have made the day better is if the Bears had actually won.
Day 2 included a construction-based traffic jam in the National Park, a hidden trail head with sketchy GPS, some blind luck in finding it, and a fun 8 mile roundtrip hike to Charlie's Bunion.
Choosing longer, more strenuous hikes meant that the trails were not crowded and we got to just enjoy the summits/end points without a circus of other people.
Although we enjoyed the relative solitude of these trails, everybody we met along the way was very nice. These longer hikes gave a sense of comradery with those putting in the same sweat and miles.
Since we were already in the area, we followed up Charlie's Bunion with the Chimney Tops hike that we had done with the kids on our last trip. The last time we did this hike it was FREEZING, icy, and included plenty of whining and tears. This time, the weather was beautiful and we could enjoy the hike a bit more.
Although Chimney Tops was a short hike, it was pretty strenuous and reminded me that our kids are hard core hikers for their ages. It was a steep climb!
After our big day of hiking, we got cleaned up and headed into Pigeon Forge to revisit The Old Mill restaurant from one of our previous visits with the kids. The food was still good but our waiter was not and the entire experience was pretty lackluster.
We went to bed early so we could get an early start for our next day's hike. We wanted to avoid the traffic and beat the crowds, two goals that we were able to accomplish. The 10 mile roundtrip hike to Mt. LeConte was our favorite of the trip.
We got to enjoy the various points of interest along the trail, including Arch Rock...
Alum Cave Bluffs...
and lots of epic overlooks.
There were also some pretty questionable drop offs, making me point out each one that would make me so nervous if the kids were hiking this with us.
I also LOVED the strongly scented pine forests. I told Zach I wanted to take a picture of the smell to bring back with me. This was the best I could do.
We summitted Cliff Tops on Mt. LeConte at just the perfect time to enjoy a snack and a beautiful view with limited company.
By the time we hiked the short way over for a different view from Myrtle Point, the clouds had rolled in and there was absolutely no view. Hiking down was cloudy with some sprinkles, making us so glad we got our early start and got to enjoy the view before it disappeared.
After Mt. LeConte, we decided to check out the Clingman's Dome Trail (the highest point in the National Park). We found the construction traffic we had missed in the morning and remembered the crowds we had avoided all week as we walked the paved 1 mile round trip trail up to the observation tower.
Another "hike" checked off the list before heading back for a hot tub soak, some yummy cheeseburgers on the grill, and a romantic comedy to round out the night.
For our final day, we slept in and then decided to revisit some waterfall hikes we had done with the kids on our first trip. We hiked the 5.4 miles roundtrip to Rainbow Falls, again marveling at just how good our kids hike as we did this trail when Briggs had just turned 5.
We enjoyed our picnic lunch at the base of the falls and took some pictures and videos of the colonies of salamanders we found to show the kids.
As we were hiking back down, we encountered tons of wildlife. We found lots of salamanders, spotted some wild turkey, and then came upon this young bear foraging along the trail. This was our first time ever encountering a bear while hiking. Thankfully he seemed pretty mellow and undisturbed by our presence.
Just a short ways after we left the bear, we came across this deer right next to the trail. These wildlife sightings were the most we saw during our entire trip.
Although it was getting later in the afternoon, we decided to add on the 2.8 mile roundtrip hike to Grotto Falls to round out our day. This was the first hike we ever did with the kids in the Smoky Mountains.
It was a quick, easy hike and we enjoyed getting in one final hike to round out our week.
After hiking, we decided to enjoy our anniversary with dinner at Howard's Restaurant in Gatlinburg. We enjoyed the big outdoor patio by the creek, our nice waitress, and the yummy food. We followed up dinner with another relaxing evening in the cabin, watching a movie and eating ice cream. It was a great way to end the last night of our trip.
Cheers to a wonderful get-away. Cheers to quality time together. Cheers to fresh air, beautiful scenery, exercise, and relaxation. Cheers to 20 years together. Cheers to us!!
