We drove to the Great Smoky Mountains for the weekend and stayed in a pleasant B&B in Bryson City, NC right next to the Cherokee Indian Reservation. The area is renowned for the river rafting, mountain biking and hiking. We arrived on Friday the 4th around 3pm, checked in and immediately got ready to go for a bike ride. We found a trail called, " Winding Stairs". It was an easy 13 mile ride but of course it was already late in the day so we weren't sure we would do the entire thing. The map wasn't very good and we didn't start at the beginning but we did do around 5 miles.... a bit of a severe uphill on a forest service road ( gravel) and a few miles of flat bike path (pavement). Had we gone to the top, we would have seen Queen Lake and had a screaming downhill past waterfalls etc. Anyway it was fun and beautiful.
We went out to eat and had mountain Trout... exceptional.
We viewed terrific fireworks at 10:00 from the small town baseball field.. We were amazed at how spectacular they were considering how in the Appalachian boons we were.
On Saturday we woke up to rain and checked out the small town... lots of dry goods stores, gun shops and a few craft shops. The rain stopped in time for us to head up to the river to take some pictures and finally start our 1:30 River Rafting trip. The river is a Class 2 and Class 3 rapids river and we went on a guided river raft. Our guide was Kari from Minnesota and on the raft with us was a woman and her 7 year old daughter. It was a wonderful 8 mile trip down the river paddling through a variety of rapids.... Now we will have to take Kayak lessons for river kayaking.... :-) THIS IS US IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RAFT GOING DOWN CLASS 3 RAPIDS!!!!
On Sunday, after our breakfast, we decided to return home via the Blue Ridge Parkway that follows ridges at 6000 feet along the Smoky Mountains all the way to the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. We drove on it for over 70 miles before descending into Asheville, NC to hit the interstate and return home. Spectacular views and wonderful winding roads along the Blue Ridge.
Myron couldn't resist having his bald dome photographed at the overlooks of the various
mountain tops called BALDS!Love
Anna and Myron
